Customer Reviews

Adventures in the Underground Journey to the Stars

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

South is is one of those great bands that not enough people know about, with their sleepy mixture of downtempo and Britpop. It's a shame that a lot of people say, "Who?" when I mention them.

And their brilliant music continues in their third full-length album "Adventures in the Underground Journey to the Stars." They take tight melodies and solid songwriting, mix it up with some lush electronic backdrops, and produce some truly beautiful music. Yes, it really is that good.

The album opens with traffic, echoing footsteps, a train going by, and doors opening --probably the London tube. Then the drums kick in, a solid guitar riff blossoms out, and Joel Cadbury murmurs over a swirling melody: "Give in to love it's the one thing we have/Hold out your laugh see the beauty within/I know the way but you won't be the first/Don't mean there's no pain.... There must be more to love than this..."

It's a strong opener, and it leads in to a bunch of other really good songs. All types: expansive indie rock that commands "don't take yourself so seriously," electro-tinged rock'n'roll, and some swirling darker numbers that sound like a rainy night in a London park, just as the stars come out.

But the guys also explore some less-travelled musical territory. There's the twangy countryish "Know Yourself," and a couple songs have swirling, twinkly electronica. The album stays spellbinding right up through the finale, where Cadbury murmurs, "One thing after another/Safe in the knowledge that we are flesh and bone/As beautiful as the first day..."

South has only had two albums before this one, but with "Adventures in the Underground...," they reach new levels. These guys can tackle all sorts of music: moody indierock, lush shoegazer, swirly atmospherics, electronic-edged folkpop, and any imaginable blend of the above. And what's more, they can do it well.

If you stripped away the trappings and keyboards, the swirling guitars and solid basslines would still be there. The drumming is subtle and flexible, although sometimes the more prominent instruments make it hard to hear. Most impressively, keyboards and guitars actually seem to melt together until it's hard to tell just where one ends and the other begins, which adds to the dreaminess of it all.

Joel Cadbury's voice gets better with each album. At first he sounded kind of hesitant, and now he sounds smooth and confident enough to tackle the sadness, loneliness, and the love in these songs. "Sing my way through life/Fear it hides my smile/If eyes are windows too/the soul I see in you..." he croons over a driving rock rhythm.

With "Adventures in the Underground Journey to the Stars," South explores new territory while staying close to their electro-edged Britpop. An enchanting, bittersweet experience.

<strong>South</strong> is a trio from London, England that have been playing together since 1998. <em><strong>Adventures In The Underground Journey To The Stars</strong></em> is their third full album, and is without doubt their most straight-forward pop effort, in a good and accessible way. The opening track is neither brilliant nor irritating and is filled with easy to take echoing vocals, a fast-tempo beat, and soothing "aaahoooo" background vocals. This track shows some affinity with bands such as <strong>Doves</strong>, <strong>Better Than Ezra</strong>, and <strong>Snow Patrol</strong>.

The album picks up with a really strong 3rd track, <em>You Are One</em>, that has a great melody, catchy guitar, and high quality supporting percussion and bass. Aside from the 30 seconds of "subway sounds" filler at the end, this is a song that I can imagine getting wide radio airplay. The music in <em>Pieces Of A Dream</em> shows some similarities to one of my currently favourite bands, <strong>Elbow</strong>, but the vocals are softer and closer to <strong>Jimi Goodwin</strong> from <strong>Doves</strong>. It's a mixture that works really well and makes for great bedroom listening. The next track <em>Know Yourself</em> is percussion-free, acoustical guitar-based duet sung with <strong>Pearl Lowe</strong> that has a slight slant toward alt-country. The seventh track, <em>Safety In Numbers</em>, has a vague 60's influence from bands like <strong>The Zombies</strong> or <strong>Status Quo</strong>.

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The clincher is the ninth track, <em>Up Close And Personal</em>, that starts out in such a way that it reminds me heavily of some of my favourite <strong>Badly Drawn Boy</strong> songs, but then within a minute gains its own unique feel. Although my opinion of this CD seems to change after each listen, at the moment, this is the track that keeps me coming back to have another listen.

The songs on this album are well placed in relation to each other. A slightly weaker middle section is surrounded by stronger tracks, with the best tracks placed carefully at track 3 and track 9. This means that any lulls in the CD are short and the strength of the next few songs brings you back into music. This entire album has made it into my current leisure-time listening rotation.

I for one like the lo-fi, am radio sound and feel of the first record. I also liked the big sweeping rush of sound that the second album brought with it. But I am glad to see them step back into the lo-fi, low profile sound that first struck a chord with me.
They still pack a punch from time to time, but the melodies drive the cart, and they drive with passion.

This is a great record that should please all those that were a little saddend by the second record. I can't wait to see them play a small venue in Los Angeles soon. Hopefully the Troubadour!

In purchasing this cd I was hoping that it would at least MATCH the shear feel and sonic intensity of their last album WITH THE TIDES, but for me, it just falls short.
The album does have it's moments, dont get me wrong, but sadly I dont enjoy this album as much as WITH THE TIDES, or even their first one.
These guys are a great band, and certainly proved it on their last album, and I do appreciate the attempt they made to stretch the boundaries of their sound, but I do believe what makes them great is their ability to craft huge, soaring ,melodies, and take me to another world with their music.
I have given this record more than a few listens, and just cant find it interesting, or even edgy like their last one. Hopefully the next cd revisits what made them great.

As finding their album "With The Tides" by mistake and getting an amazing-huge sounding album that would give most other britpop bands a run for their money, South has gone in the other direction and definately not for the better. Instead of crafting their moody atmospheric sound, they exchanged it for the more indie-pop trend that is exploding at the moment. Instead of what could have been another great album, they made a boring run of the mill soundtrack that blends in with 99% of the other bands out at the moment. What a surprise it was to me when I saw them in chicago sounding exactly the same as the other bands, sorry guys, go back to what you were excellent at doing on your first 2 records instead of trying to sell more...

I'm going to keep this short. I love this band, and I love this album. I'm pretty much just writing this review in hopes that I may bump the overall rating a bit higher. This is a great album from start to finish. I have no idea why people are complaining about it. I don't find it boring at all. I can't wait for the new album which is coming in just a few short weeks.

Not even close in quality to the band's two proceeding albums, "With the Tides," and "From Here On In," "Adventures etc." is almost painful to listen to at times. Besides the excellent "A Place in Displacement" (reminiscent of later New Order), and the very good "What Holds Us" - both of which would have fit in better in "With the Tides" - "Adventures" plods along with unmemorable songs which are downright schmaltzy at times.

Some songs have their moments and then suddenly morph into cloying melodies (case in point "Habit of a Lifetime"). "You Are One" starts off promisingly enough and the devolves into a rather ordinary pop song. "Know Yourself," plagiarizes The Jesus and Mary Chain's fluffy but infectious "Sometimes Always," and makes it even more fluffy and decidedly uninfectious. The chorus is rousing enough in "Safety in Numbers," but the rest of the song looses me. After "What Holds Us," the album just turns deadly dull.

It's possible that I might start liking more of "Adventures" with repeated listening (and as mentioned above, I do love track 6 and like track 8 alot), but the previous two albums grabbed me right away, and made me into a South fan, which I remain despite this rather weak offering. I'm hoping that the band's next album returns South to the extremely compelling band that they have already proven they can be with the excellent "From Here on In," and "With the Tides." I also look forward to seeing the band live.

South is is one of those great bands that not enough people know about, with their sleepy mixture of downtempo and Britpop. It's a shame that a lot of people say, "Who?" when I mention them.

And their brilliant music continues in their third full-length album "Adventures in the Underground Journey to the Stars." They take tight melodies and solid songwriting, mix it up with some lush electronic backdrops, and produce some truly beautiful music. Yes, it really is that good.

The album opens with traffic, echoing footsteps, a train going by, and doors opening --probably the London tube. Then the drums kick in, a solid guitar riff blossoms out, and Joel Cadbury murmurs over a swirling melody: "Give in to love it's the one thing we have/Hold out your laugh see the beauty within/I know the way but you won't be the first/Don't mean there's no pain.... There must be more to love than this..."

It's a strong opener, and it leads in to a bunch of other really good songs. All types: expansive indie rock that commands "don't take yourself so seriously," electro-tinged rock'n'roll, and some swirling darker numbers that sound like a rainy night in a London park, just as the stars come out.

But the guys also explore some less-travelled musical territory. There's the twangy countryish "Know Yourself," and a couple songs have swirling, twinkly electronica. The album stays spellbinding right up through the finale, where Cadbury murmurs, "One thing after another/Safe in the knowledge that we are flesh and bone/As beautiful as the first day..."

South has only had two albums before this one, but with "Adventures in the Underground...," they reach new levels. These guys can tackle all sorts of music: moody indierock, lush shoegazer, swirly atmospherics, electronic-edged folkpop, and any imaginable blend of the above. And what's more, they can do it well.

If you stripped away the trappings and keyboards, the swirling guitars and solid basslines would still be there. The drumming is subtle and flexible, although sometimes the more prominent instruments make it hard to hear. Most impressively, keyboards and guitars actually seem to melt together until it's hard to tell just where one ends and the other begins, which adds to the dreaminess of it all.

Joel Cadbury's voice gets better with each album. At first he sounded kind of hesitant, and now he sounds smooth and confident enough to tackle the sadness, loneliness, and the love in these songs. "Sing my way through life/Fear it hides my smile/If eyes are windows too/the soul I see in you..." he croons over a driving rock rhythm.

With "Adventures in the Underground Journey to the Stars," South explores new territory while staying close to their electro-edged Britpop. An enchanting, bittersweet experience.

I'm not exactly sure I like it as much as their two previous records, but it certainly has a certain amount of their charm and musicianship, it just doesn't sound as sonically expansive as their last two records and I can understand why they didn't do that, but I wish they would've kept exploring sounds since they were continuing to get a more muscular sound while continuing their soft acoustic style on a number of tracks. I'll give it a few more listens and see whether I feel positive about my feelings or not, it's just different, that's all, and not the different that I immediately like.

I just saw South play in Miami to roughly 15 people (the night before in Orlando 300 people)...they played for 20 minutes because of the dumb club (Studio A). Anyway, they are always amazing live and have had the album a week before release. Naturally, I own all three albums. I am a huge From Here On In fan, but Adventures really gives the debut a run for its money. This is what I've always wanted from South: a less polished yet full sounding recording with just as many upbeat tracks as medium paced ones. The first track Shallow is almost like a New Order / Joy Division revival. The melody of the first few versus sounds extremely close to Love Will Tear Us Apart, the bass line comes right out of the book of Peter Hook. My other favorite tracks are You Are One and A Place In Displacement, both are really energetic. There are a few acoustic numbers to slow the album down. What makes South such a unique band is their ability to turn really unobvious hooks obvious. A good example is on From Here On In - the bass line for Keep Close. I cannot wait to find out what greater attachment I will have for this new one. If you liked the last two albums, this is really a no brainer. In addition, you'll be wowed.

EXTENDED REVIEW:
With The Tides is certainly a great album, but to determine South to be always so landscaped in comparison to Doves' Las Broadcast is selling this band short. Overused - the Japanese Mo Wax collective is full of Manchester-electro-dub (the second track sounds like Joel is being channeled by Shawn Ryder). From Here On In took it all one step further by furnishing a dreampop / shoegaze element - nothing to overproduced. If anything for me, With The Tides is my least favorite. I love it, but the production is slick and sleepy, respectfully. Adventures brings BEATS and LICKS that stick. It really does at certain points take me to the earliest New Order albums. Track 3 is so damn catchy. They have always been a little retro, but again, it is one of the reasons I've liked them since the debut. They create music, not lift it.