Customer Reviews

Hooverphonic Presents Jackie Cane

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The latest album from Hooverphonic is mysteriously unavailable in most of the world at this point in time (October '02), with no American release in site. (Amazon U.K. doesn't even have a listing for it). Of course, SONY Music, the ones most likely behind the meatheaded decision to release the album only in non-English-speaking areas of Europe, has simply forced me to diligently find and download the entire album over the internet, whereas given the choice to simply buy the album, I would have done so. Well, at least I can report on the album. Hooverphonic continue to veer away from the cool, experimental trip-hop they forged on albums like "Blue Wonder Power Milk" (my favorite!) to the more pop-inflected, mass-appeal sound of their last release "The Magnificent Tree". "Hooverphonic Presents Jackie Cane" is a concept album of sorts, revolving around the fictional character of Jackie Cane, who actually first popped up in a self-titled song on "Tree". In fact, the album itself often sounds like a soundtrack to a movie, highly-orchestrated, and often bright and cheery (not exactly a hallmark of Hooverphonic past), as evidenced on the new single The World is Mine. Thankfully that song has turned out to be my least favorite on the album, and while this is not the direction I'd hoped they'd take with this new release, there's still enough of the "old Hoover" in songs like Shampoo and One that helps me to overcome the blandness of piano-and-vocal songs like The Kiss and Last Supper. Hooverphonic has had the ability to write some of the most unique and stirring music I've heard over the last several years (who else but Hooverphonic could write something like Renaissance Affair or This Strange Effect??), only to now aim for the dreaded "larger audience" as a way to success, and in the process, let their seamless blend of experimental melodic trip-hop become their footnote. A good album, by a band who could easily have done better.

For those of us who have been Hooverphonic fans from the word 'go', this album was hard to swallow. As ever though, it gets better over time.

'Human Interest' is classic Hooverphonic all-over, string laden trip-hop. It's 'Battersea' mixed with 'Eden', and is any bit as good as anything else they've done.

'The World is Mine' is not classic Hooverphonic at all, but in the context of this album it works extremely well. This is probably my favourite track on the album. If you can't get your head out of ye olde Hooverphonic mindset, you probably won't like this.. but then again, you probably don't like any band that experiments with their sound.

The album drags its feet in places, like in Nirvana Blue or Sad Song, but in both cases you're rewarded with an overall excellent song, even if it takes a while to get there. Sad Song shows Geike's voice at its peak, she sounds amazingly like Jewel.

In the end though, we have an amazing album here, and all listeners are rewarded with the amazing 'The Kiss' as the last track. Anyone with an ounce of nostalgia in their body could appreciate this.

My advice is to forget about who Hooverphonic were, and just enjoy this release in its own right. It's not another Blue Wonder Power Milk, but it's a beautiful Hooverphonic musical. And to all of those who think 'The World is Mine' is awful, just listen to how amazingly tight it is, how great the musicians are, and how well it's produced.

You might not like the style, but it reeks professionalism. A true hallmark of a Hooverphonic album.

Hooverphonic are one of the few groups I make an effort to go and see when they tour. I have to admit I was originally very disheartened with Jackie Cane but now, after listening to it a few more times, my opinion has changed and I'm nowhere near as depressed with my purchase as I originally was.

For those of you who know their earlier work, I'm a "Battersea, Out of Sight, Eden, Vinegar and Salt, Mad about You" kinda-a-guy, and the tracks on the Jackie Cane CD are, like their previous CD's, very hit or miss. By far the best track on this CD is "Human Interest", and it is followed by "Nirvana", "The World is Mine" and "One". The rest of the CD is ho-hum and not nearly as good.

Hooverphonic try to experiment somewhat later in the CD and they get away from what I love them for. The Buddhist meditative track "Jackie's Delight" works fairly well. The Bjorkish "Sad Song", "Shampoo", "Others Delight", "Opium" and "The Last Supper" are really just inconsequential filler. I went straight to sleep. The CD wraps up with "The Kiss" with its piano and orchestra sounds like the theme song to some dreadfully soppy and forgettable TV movie.

The second CD has a couple of interesting remixes of "Eden" and "Out of Sight", and an interesting take of "Vinegar and Salt".

I absolutely hate buying CD's and getting one or two good songs. Although I was at first uninspired and somewhat disillusioned, this double-CD set, even as a higher-priced import, in the end passes as a good buy. There are four tracks definitely worth having, and a couple of decent remixes of some of my old favorites.

This is the best Hooverphonic album by far. If you don't know - Hooverphonic is Downtempo / Trip-hop most similar to Portishead and Lamb. These arrangements are very symphonic - including the most popular track - "Sometimes" - and most if not all tracks include vocals.

This is a very interesting album to attempt to sum up. It would probably a fair assumption to say the Hooverphonics are better and worse than ever before. The old trip-hop/pop sound has all but disappeared in favour for a huge, expansive orchestral sound which actually first surfaced on 'Blue Wonder Powder Milk' and was continued on 'The Magnificent Tree'. I think their sound is now just over-ripe, whereas 'The Magnificent Tree' was their best album. I think they need to regain a more experimental edge, and possible ditch the orchestras for their next album. Their are of course several high points on this album (after all this is The Hooverphonics we are talking about!) Sometimes, One, Human Interest and Shampoo are all of high quality. However you can't help notice the 'sheen' added to the songs and one cant help wonder if this is an attempt to appeal to a wider audience which is a shame. If their next album carries on in the same vein then I may not consider purchasing any more material by them, however if their is an improvement then I hope to buy many more albums from them.

I love Hooverphonic but this is their weakest effort to date. It still has some great songs on it, but it doesn't measure up to any of their other releases. It is a concept album and holds together well from that perspective, but the songs are just not as solid as previous offerings. Try their latest release "President Of The LSD Club" for a solid, great recording by this special and unique band. "Blue Wonder Power Milk" and "A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular" are also better places to start a sampling of Hooverphonic. However, if you like their sound on this album you will not be dissapointed by No More Sweet Music/More Sweet Music. Highlights on this album include:

One
Nirvana Blue
The World Is Mine
Sad Song

The rest of the album is an acquired taste and serves more to prop up the concept than to entertain. My personal rankings of all Hooverphonic albums are as follows:

Blue Wonder Power Milk
No More Sweet Music/More Sweet Music
A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular
President Of The LSD Golf Club
The Magnificent Tree
Sit Down And Listen To Hooverphonic
Hooverphonic Presents Jackie Cane

At first i was afraid to listen to this albun since I'm a HUGE Hooverphonic fan, and i had read such disspointing reviews from lots of people. I gave it a try, and it wasn't usual hooverphonics at first, but it wasn't all that bad. The second time, it got better, and by the third time they had me. It's extremely well produced . It's great to listen to over and over again. My cd player keeps calling me if I go for too long without playing it (it's been pretty much the ONE cd in there for a week now). So, I say give it a try, and then another try, and then a third one. you'll be hooked.

Suck. This album has one or two good songs on it. I have overplayed The world is mine and then discarded the CD. I will never listen to the album in its entirety again. I tried and tried, but like my vacuum, this album sucks. Sad because I love Hooverphonic's Power of Milk and all their earlier stuff. I am sadly disappointed with all these hopeful and promising reveiws that led me to buy this unreturnable reminder of this enormous waste of my money and hour of life I will never get back. Hooverphonic go back to your old style!
Save the soft love songs for Delilah!

If you like Broadcast, Mum, Airlock (also Belgian) , Moloko or Portishead, then you will like this Belgian entry into the triphop genre.

CD One is their fourth studio release. Mixing heart-crushingly sad songs with silly, uplifting ones, Hooverphonic further entrenches themselves in the "fairy songs" catalogue! Crescendoing flights of fancy songs ("Sometimes") bump up against ambient wieirdness, as when Indian chanting layers over sonic seancé snippets in "Jackie's Delerium."

The second CD remixes their six previous singles. "The Inhaler" remix (as heard on CBS' TV hit "CSI") allows you to finally hear the lyrcs! And amazingly, the take "2Wicky" and make a great song better!

I will admit that the first time that somebody played me Hooverphonic presents Jackie Cane, I was sitting there going, are you sure that this is Hooverphonic. It sounds much like their earlier releases in terms of richness of sound and the general orchestral feel to the music, its just that Hooverphonic went in a direction that was unexpected.
It wasn't until a couple of months later when I decided to really give it a chance and listen to it a couple of times, to see if I could get a feel for what they were attempting. To my surprise, by the third listen I was completely hooked; and I now believe that this is by far the best Hooverphonic album to date. It may not have some of my favorite songs of old, but as an entirety it holds a continuity that I do not feel that their earlier albums every completely accomplished, I was always willing to listen to which ever Hooverphonic album happened to catch my fancy. With this album, I alsolutely refuse, each song bleeds into the next seemlessly creating a mood that is completely undescribable.
I love it, that is all that I can trully say. It is beautiful.