Customer Reviews

On High

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

 

 

What a wonderful surprise! While Soundpool draws on classic shoegaze & wears those shimmering influences proudly, there's more going on here as well. As previous reviewers have noted, the 60s pop influence is equally as strong -- songs like "Span the Universe" & "Moonglow," for example, almost sound like a head-on collision between Lush or Pale Saints & the manic, propulsive energy of an old Top 40 hit like "Telstar." And the comparison to Stereolab on some tracks is definitely deserved.

But I don't want to make this sound merely derivative. Yes, the influences are there ... but Soundpool makes something fresh out of them, something that combines the ethereal, transporting haze of shoegaze with a solid rock beat. Their music is both haunting & unexpectedly cheerful, with catchy hooks galore. Again, as previously noted, the lyrics are positive, filled with as much sunshine as moonglow. Just listen to the opening title track -- it soars! And what follows fulfills the promise of that first song.

A band to follow eagerly -- highly recommended, and not just to shoegazers!

(Though this edition is out-of-print, there's a new one available.)

I'm a big "shoegazer" fan but sometimes the music sometimes gets too lost in liquidy layers of sound. There has to be something in that sound to grab onto--otherwise the listener will find himself drowning in noise. Fortunately, this is not a problem for Soundpool.

"On High," is a remarkably diverse effort. Sixties pop is a big influence here, and there are plenty of effective pop hooks to catch the listeners' attention. At a couple of points, and particularly on the track "Span The Universe," they sound a little like Stereolab, except with more warmth. Other times you can hear Petula Clark or Brian Wilson influences, particularly if you listen closely enough to the tracks "Polyphony" or "All of Eternity." They also insert a few interesting thirty-second tracks to round things out, such as "Be" where the members are chanting the word "be," or "Choir," which recalls the opening chorus of voices on Brian Wilson's "Smile" album.

One thing I like best about them, though, are the lyrics--very positive, sunny and bright. It's hard not to sing along to "sunset, sunrise, the sun in your eyes, revolves love endlessly," or "hear me, we're gonna be o.k." There is also a bit of social commentary in the song "Millions&Billions&Trillions," which talks about "dollar bills and stars up in the sky, profits made and tears that people cry."

Except---and this is my only little criticism of the album---it's a bit hard to hear the lyrics. I recognize that there can be an aesthetic quality to making the vocals barely audible above the sound--not uncommon among "shoegaze" bands. But in this case, the words are far too good to bury---there's nothing to apologize for with these lyrics.

The album stays strong throughout, and picks up energy through the last five tracks. It says a lot about an album when listening to it lifts your spirits and leaves you in a good mood.

Inspired by My Bloody Valentine, Lush, and Charterhouse of the 1990s, Soundpool has an authentic sound and good enough melodies to transcend the label of a mere copy band. With slow- and mid-tempo songs, the band is not as dreamy as Slowdive or the current Slowdive-sounding band Daysleepers, but it is evocative of those bands in its slower moments. With six solid songs, I say they're worth a listen.

If you like romantic dream pop, then you might also want to check out the Swedish bands Ronderlin, Wan Light, and Radio Dept.

I missed this until now, but I'll make up for it by saying mostly nice things about this NYC band. Start off with "Span" and you will very quickly classify this as boy-girl Lush clone band, and a pretty good one too. Start with "Walking", and you're listening to someone who was influenced by MBV, but later was heavy into the Dandy Warhols. Okay, they're derivative, which is fine if the music stands up, and in general it does. There are plenty of Lush touches, maybe the band is paying homage a bit, but that's fine with me. Really, these guys do Lush (gulp) better than Lush did in terms of overall musical quality, there are no complete misses on this long CD.

The keys to this light shoe/dreampop are; melodies (A-), lots of swirling guitars and a pulsing keyboard back (A), ethereal vocals mixed in so deep you can't hear a freaking word (A), and a consistent extended beat for trance dancing well past midnight (A+, very few stops and starts). There are the odd spots (like Lush) where the passages don't quite connect right, particularly on "Polyphony", but that's a relatively minor gripe. The entire CD, aside from the needless short connecting tracks, went straight to my playlists when ripped, that's rare. So, give them a fiver.

Like a couple of other shoe revival bands recently, this group makes no secret of their intent or influences, one of the songs here is "My Ethereal Daydream", and the new CD has a song with "Lush" in the title. As a long term shoe fan, it's great to see the genre being explored again, it lapsed too soon for my taste. This is most welcome, I love it without reservation.