Customer Reviews

Lushlife

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Sure this is trip hop. Sure it's been done before. Sure BE is following in the footsteps of pioneers Massive Attack and Portishead. But at least they're damn good at it. I've been a fan of trip hop since I heard blue lines from massive attack and I've heard many bad imitations since then, but with BE I was impressed from begining to end. I've never heard of them until I checked out their CD at a listening station and the moment the first track started, washing over me in waves and I noticed the subtle sample from Siouxsie and the Banshees'"Trust In Me", I fell in love. The beats aren't as bass oriented as most trip hop and they employ lots of strings but it works. "lushlife", the title track is my fave. The bass line is steady and deep, the "do do do dos" of the chorus is fantastic and the lyrics, a somber story of a woman regretting meeting a man, is profoundly touching. I listened to this CD for weeks on end after breaking up with my boyfriend. It was a perfect soundtrack for the emotions I was going through. the tracks vary from instrumentals to lush vocals.Nothing really danceable but very very listenable. I highly reccomend it for fans of the trip hop genre.

If you are unfamiliar with Bowery Electric, ignore the mediocre reviews from die-hard fans. Yes, the sound is more mature, fully fleshed out and, well, lush. However, at least in my book, this is a positive move for this band, given their ethereal, semi-gothic mix of airy vocals and contemporary rythyms (think Portishead without the annoying parts, Cocteau Twins circa 2000 with trip-hop beats).To my taste, this is a wonderful CD, and a more enjoyable listening experience than their previous outings.

As a long time BE fan, I find their latest work to be a logical and gorgeous epiphane in the progression of their sound. Starting out as an admittedly great guitar-drony band, they've gradually moved away from guitar and into the electro-beat oriented material of "Lushlife". If you aren't put off by the lack of guitar, you should love this album. I'm one of the few who were bored by their 1996 album "Beat"...this is what that album could have been. I'm just glad they found it now. The sound may seem familiar if you are into similar bands such as Laika or Hooverphonic, and if you are you can't go wrong here.

I may not be a devout college radio listening, everything sucks, gen-x kinda guy, but I know quality music when I hear it. BE's new album is great. Chilled out, interesting sounds, nice beats, what more could I ask for. Beggars Banquet keeps putting out great releases. No need to over analyze music guys, does it sound good, does it make you feel something? Alright then.

Along with the brilliant Luna, Bowery Electric strongly evoke New York City and everything that city represents, particularly its nightlife. Combining hip hop beats, looped guitar noise, strings and the luscious vocal stylings of Marlene Whats-her-name, Bowery Electric took off where My Bloody Valentine left off with their excellent debut release in 1995. Since then they have released three more albums. Beat was long, slow and lost urgency in too many places. Very much a mood piece. Fortunately Lushlife is a return to form and delivers on many levels. The opening track is a doozie, as is Psalms of Survival and Freedom Fighter. If ya dig sophisticated, post-modern rock with some hip hop street suss in the mix, this is for you.

I really like this album, but in a different way from my other Bowery Electric CDs. Lushlife for me is in the vein of Aria or Goldfrapp except more raw, dirty, and loose. Like other reviewers have said, it is a more produced than their other CDs, but it's a LONG way from sounding over-produced like anything from a top-40 artist.

"Lushlife" is the third proper album from seminal New York shoegazers Bowery Electric. Their first two albums ("Bowery Electric" and "Beat", along with the remix album "vertigo") show a band heavily influenced by bands such as Slowdive, Seefeel, et al. Droning, ethereal space rock built around spacey, ambient guitars and noise and Marth Schwedener's lazy wistful vocals. "Lushlife", however, sees the group moving into more electronic realms, and doing a masterful job of it.

There are few CDs that, purely by sound, can transport you to a place...but Lushlife accomplishes that quite easily. The somber strings and cold programmed beats give the listener a simultaneously lonely yet claustrophobic feeling, like being lost in the center of a large, unfamiliar city late at night. Guitars and synth pads drift in and out, Martha Schwedener's vocals meander over the top, and you can almost feel yourself in the damp, cluttered studio in the center of New York at night where the album was recorded.

No one will ever accuse Bowery of being overly technically proficient with their instruments or song structures...and save for a few diversions here and there (distorted guitars on "Freedom Fighter", jungle beats at the end of "Passages") the song structures on Lushlife follow a familiar theme. The droning guitars have been replaced by ambient synth noises and lush string sections, augmented by the occasional guitar or record scratch. Martha's vocals remain cold and hazy, but are much more forward in the mix than in previous releases. Additionally, the tracks on Lushlife are much more song-oriented, rather than jam oriented, giving the album a more cohesive feel.

If you are not a fan of thedrone/space rock genre, this album is not for you. If, however, you are partial to the darker, hazy, ambient textures of ethereal rock, this album presents a sound and feeling like few others I have ever encountered.

"Lushlife" is a great album by this New York duo. Though perhaps not as interesting or well thought-out as the two previous, this album will surely delight any fan of electronica or trip-hop. Bowery Electric has a very original sound and proves with "Lushlife" that they are not afraid to be as minimalistic as they want and still hold your interest, even if you are a beat junkie like me!

On this album Bowery Electric have cleverly and very successfully replaced the Slowdive-style wall of guitar effects found on their first album with (synthesized?) orchestration. Where "Beat" felt incomplete -- like the first album with the guitar ripped out and a drum machine replacing the rock beat with hip-hop -- "Lushlife" fills their sound back out again. The end result, it has to be said, is trip-hop, and damn well-done trip-hop at that; perhaps the fact that they came from space-rock rather than some area of DJ culture gives them a different outlook. Everything previous reviews have said about "blah blah yearning romanticism blah blah" I agree with ... the title track in particular is haunting and gives me the urge to play it over and over.

I'm always irked by reviews of albums suggesting a musical group doesn't break any new ground or is merely derivative of other's work. Unfortunatly, I've read many musical critics reviews of the new Bowery Electric album expressing this sentiment. When did every album have to be a totally unique, innovative, mind blowing production? Personlly, I think "Lushlife" is the best piece of work Bowery Electric have put out in their musical career. Sure, people are going to cry, "it's not 'Beat'", "the drone is gone...blah blah blah...." or "their earlier stuff is better" or...once a band gets popular, then somehow they have sold out.... This is a wonderful album, plain and simple, and in my opinion, one of the better works to come out of "post-rock" in quite a while. I hope Bowery Electric can make their way out of relative musical obscurity with this work, and then get the recognition they deserve. Buy the album, and judge for yourself....