Customer Reviews

Love & Distortion

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

 

 

'Love And Distortion' falls somewhere in between the feedback blasts of My Bloody Valentine/Ride and the dreamy drug-induced vibes of early Spiritualized. Along with Nick McCabe guitar whines of The Verve is a sludgey Pavement-type sound lurking between the cracks, yet without straying too far away from the shoegaze template. The closest comparison to these echoing riffs meets white-noise can be found in The Pale Saints or Springhouse. Nevertheless, the trip continues to be atmospheric, trippy, with the listener barely hovering off the ground.

An excellent album; don't let one of the negative reviews deter you from buying this album as it is far supeior to their debut, "The Revolt Against Tired Noises." In fact, it is one of the best albums of 2003 up to this point.

The music is akin to late 80s England (Spacemen 3 in that band's more quiet moods, MBV, Slowdive, Ride, etc.), but as good as those bands are we need an update on the sound. S4 provide it. But where the above bands were sometimes avbrasive, S4 are always smooth. And for those who love the lyrics as well, vocalist Chris Streng isn't afraid to let his heart leap out of his chest and run free for all to see.

Almost every song is dealing with love and loss. Whether it's 'Where the Ocean Meets the Eye,' '12 Months,' 'The Simple Thngs are Taking Over,' 'Telephone,' 'Tonight Would be Alright,' or 'Swim Into it,' the lyrics are often sent express from the heart to the listener's brain. The album title "Love and Distortion" could not be any truer: the intamacy of love is everywhere and almost every song is soaked in reverbed guitars that soar across the airspace in the brain before coming to a rest softly in the soul.

If there were any justice in the world 'Swim Into it' would go down as one of the finest recorded moments of 2003. At over nine minutes (and every second more than worth it) it is easily S4's high water mark in their career. That they are able to achieve this on their second proper album only proves the greatness they are likely to grace us with in the future.

'Swim Into it' is a lovely lullaby, invoking those moments just before one crashes into dreamland where the face of *the one* flashes across the brain and her honey voice drips into the ears. When Streng sings 'I know the moon is shining sweelty on down/on me/on you/it shines on you' and the guitar seems to fall from heavenly heights, it makes the listener want to be there to witness the scene.

This album has 10 songs, eight are absolutely perfect. I'm no mathematician, but that's close to 80% great. You will not find too many other albums that, from start to finish, give the listener such a terrific musical and emotional ride through everyday life. Buy this album.

The Stratford 4 return with another stellar album that is better than their debut, Revolt Against Tired Noises. This San Francisco quartet have improved their musicianship, and prove to the world once more that they know how to write great indie music. The hooks are great and the melodies are catchy. My favorite song is "Telephone" because it reminds us that its okay to sit at home Saturday nights and do nothing but listen to the radio, as long as you are listening to the great rock and roll legends.

I have been listening to this album non-stop for about half a week and it just keeps getting better. Telephone is one of the greatest songs about living on your own ever made, EPIC! They have mastered the full guitar sound of My Bloody Valentine, however, they have a sound all their own. This album is sonicly amazing, listen to it full volume on headphones, you'll understand what all the rave is about. other highlights are 'She Married the Birds,' 'The Story is Over,' 'Kleptophilia,' 'The Simple Things Are Taking Over,' and the epic last track, 'Swim Into It.' Yes i realize thats almost the whole record, its a really good record though.

This is a very good album, especially if you were ever into the Ride/Slowdive shoegazing thing - and I hope you were. It isn't as good as their first album, but it's not a step backward -only a different sound. Also, how can a guy from Chicago rip on San Francisco's music scene? I mean, the ultra-hipster bands Rapture and Black Rebel Motorcycle club both originally hale from SF. Furthermore, the best album so far of 2004 comes from a San Fran-bred genuis, John Vanderslice. Chicago? Not even top 10.

I read a review from a guy in SF who was praising Omaha and their scene. All this talk is subjective of course, but it's easy to see how Omaha's popularity has dissappeared over the past 6 months or so. I went to a Bright Eyes show and thank goodness it was free: one of the worst shows I've been to. If Oamha is the future of indie rock in the states, I'm leaving the country. The saddle creek label and their bands, ie. Cursive, are primarily for youth under the age of 22, since all the stuff is so juvenile (the bright eyes show was filled with teenagers). So I guess maybe it is the future after all...but areas like New York, Seattle, San Francisco, and Austin will never yield to the likes of pretentious scenes as Cursive and Bright Eyes have conjured up.

The Stratford 4 return with another stellar album that is better than their debut, Revolt Against Tired Noises. This San Francisco quartet have improved their musicianship, and prove to the world once more that they know how to write great indie music. The hooks are great and the melodies are catchy. My favorite song is "Telephone" because it reminds us that its okay to sit at home Saturday nights and do nothing but listen to the radio, as long as you are listening to the great rock and roll legends.

The Stratford 4 return with another stellar album that is better than their debut, Revolt Against Tired Noises. This San Francisco quartet have improved their musicianship, and prove to the world once more that they know how to write great indie music. The hooks are great and the melodies are catchy. My favorite song is "Telephone" because it reminds us that its okay to sit at home Saturday nights and do nothing but listen to the radio, as long as you are listening to the great rock and roll legends.

I have been listening to this album non-stop for about half a week and it just keeps getting better. Telephone is one of the greatest songs about living on your own ever made, EPIC! They have mastered the full guitar sound of My Bloody Valentine, however, they have a sound all their own. This album is sonicly amazing, listen to it full volume on headphones, you'll understand what all the rave is about. other highlights are 'She Married the Birds,' 'The Story is Over,' 'Kleptophilia,' 'The Simple Things Are Taking Over,' and the epic last track, 'Swim Into It.' Yes i realize thats almost the whole record, its a really good record though.

One of the best CDs I've heard this year. Perfect for spring, and for getting the chills sitting by an open window. "Telephone" is my new favorite song.

The Stratford 4 sounds like the name of a political group on trial in the U.K. for dressing like William Shakespeare and protesting against, oh, I don't know, human cloning. But if they were, I would be writing this piece for the Raelians, I suppose.

No, the Stratford 4 is two lads and two lasses from San Francisco who dress like young rockers and play dreamy music that, while hardly original, provides for sometimes-pleasant listening. For your next navel-gazing party, you could place the band's new album, Love & Distortion, next to your CD player in a pile of discs from Yo La Tengo, Lush, Swervedriver and Dream Syndicate. You could place the Stratford 4 disc on the top of the pile, so only the early birds hear it, or on the bottom, so the only people who hear it are the drunk, sleepy people looking to crash on your floor.

That's not to say that Love & Distortion is a bad album, just that it's thoroughly average. Somewhat denser and prettier than the band's debut, The Revolt Against Tired Noises, the album mixes lazy-drawl vocals, swirly, delay-unit-heavy guitars and solid bass and drum work straight out of the shoegazer's playbook. Under the dense washes and drones guitarists Chris Streng and Jake Hosek manage some nice solo interplay.

Stand-out tracks include "The Simple Things Are Taking Over," with its Fugazi-on-codeine bass line and effects-laden guitars providing a hypnotic rhythm behind Thurston Moore-like vocals; "Kleptophilia," the sunniest song on the album; and "Telephone," which goes on too long as it describes a sweet conversation between Streng and his mother, who tells him that "when I was 22, I was a lot like you, I was high every night."

For the most part, however, the lyrics are bland tales of unrequited love, the search for peace and solace and, on "She Married the Birds," something that might be about a Native American woman who wears feathers, or a freaky-deaky ornithologist. Not sure, don't care. The lyrical lowlight comes on "Twelve Months," a bad attempt to describe how different months affect a relationship: "September 1st I went back to bed/October I got up and went outside/November do you recall all the things we'd said/December 19th I'm feeling fine." To which I'd add: "it's April and I'm sick of snow/the Stratford 4 are just so-so."

Dave Brigham
Junkmedia.org Review