Album Reviews: Female pop power
Lush - Lovelife
| The Clouds - Penny Century | Jale - So Wound | Frente - ShapeLush - Lovelife
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With Ride splitting rather suddenly, Lush are one of
the few survivors of the "Shoegazing" scene of
the early 90's, and like Ride's swan song (Tarantula), Lovelife
sees the sonic psychedelia and muddy vocals of earlier
efforts being abandoned for cleaner sounding guitars,
strings and brass and plain catchy pop songs. The energetic riff-a-thon 'Ladykillers' starts of the proceedings and raises a smile right from the word go before sounding suspiciously like Elastica on 'Heavenly Nobodies'. '500' (Shake baby Shake) is pure bubble gum, while the acoustic anthem 'I've been Here Before' is laced with bitterness and regret. Their past is hinted at with melancholic 'Tralala', 'Last Night' and the speedier 'Runaway' but for this album the distortion pedals are mostly kept well away. A definite highlight is Miki's mexican-pop sparring with Jarvis Cocker on 'Ciao!' a hilarious exchange of insults between two ex-lovers - "Her: It's been a nonstop party since I flew the coop/I can't believe I fell for a loser like you. Him:Oh Here we go again, just lay the blame on me/don't say another word 'cause sweetheart, you're history...". One can only wonder about what series of events gave Miki Berenyi's and Emma Anderson's (the singer/songwriter/guitar nucleus of Lush) the inspiration for the lovelife theme of the album, focusing as it does on the more negative aspects of love and relationships, but such is the quality of the songs here all I selfishly hope is they can get another album or two mileage out of it. Rating (out of 5 trainers) |
The Clouds - Penny Century (2 CD)
| Yes this is an old album (from 1991) but it has been remastered and reissued with a bonus disk, "Pre-Raphaelite", containing 13 EP and single tracks. I'll get to the bottom line quick: If you haven't got Penny Century, get this. If you already have it, get it for the bonus disk anyway. Penny Century was a remarkable debut from the Sydney quartet, the core of which features the dual vocals and guitar of Jodi Phillis and Patrica Young. It's almost impossible to pick standout tracks when the whole album is so strong but the singles 'hieronymous', 'soul eater' and should've been singles 'show me' and 'pocket' spring to mind. For those who haven't heard of the Clouds think harmonious female vocals with tough, catchy guitars and great songwriting. Think Belly meets the Breeders with a bit of Lush. Amazingly the bonus disk is nearly as good. The 'Cloud Factory' and 'Loot' EPs are here in all their fine glory and are worth the price of admission alone for the acoustic based 'cloud factory' and '4 p.m.' (the "You've got my blood on your hands" one) alone. The b-sides from the Penny Century singles may be more inconsistent but are still interesting including 'for a few bucks more' a Enio Morricone version of 'pocket' and 'eemush' which is 'show me' reversed. Caleb Rudd
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Jale - So Wound
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I like this album, nothing really to love, but a lot
to like. The stand out thing about Jale is probably that
they don't wrap their music up with any false pretenses.
What you hear is what you get, which is refreshing: for a
while. Track one (Ali) rolls into track two (first single
Hey, Hey) track two in to track three etc etc. Nothing
spectacular but nothing too shabby either. While still
having a long way to go until they reach a stage where
there music is going to find a wider audience Jale have
found some direction with So Wound,
unfortunately the Breeders, the Amps and the Clouds do it
better...for now anyway. I expect to one day here big
things about this band the ingredients are all there, now
all they need is something a little more standoutish.
Rating (out of 5 trainers)
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Frente - Shape
| After a wait of Stone Roses proportions for their
follow up album, Frente (yes, the exclamation has been
dropped) have returned a little older and a lot wiser
after growing up rather painfully in public. Still along
the way they sold a million copies of their debut disc,
toured the world, and found considerable success in the
US. Being holed up in a Spanish house/studio away from the rest of the world with two eccentric English producers - Dave Allen (The Cure) and Booga Bear (aka Cameron McVey, Massive Attack) - has obviously done them the world of good. The production is excellent, as you'd hope, allowing the voice of Angie Hart and the mainly acoustic guitar of Simon Austin to shine. McVey's dub influences come to the fore on two occasions; the trip-hopped backed 'strawberry fields' number 'Sit on My Hands' and the guitar heavy anthem 'What's come over me' (incidently the first two singles). The rest isn't so much of a departure musically, but lyrically it's more grown up and moody than than 'Marvin' with tracks like 'Burning Girl', 'Air', and 'Jungle'. Full to the brim with well constructed pop Shape should silence many doubters and critics. Let's just hope it less than 5 years before their next one. Rating (out of 5 trainers) |
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