Customer Reviews

Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons

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i was introduced to blonde redhead's music only this year, and i have discovered a plethora of some of the most expressive and different music i have ever heard in all of their albums. if i had so name my favorite contemporary band, blonde redhead is definitely it.

the songs on, 'melody of certain damaged lemons,' are quite different stylistically from one another, but fit together in a fabulous way, one that has only been equalled by such bands as sonic youth and stereolab. the album starts off with a short ambient piece, 'equally damaged,' but then goes into the sparse and tricky beats of, 'in particular,' which is an immediately magnetic track. kazu's vocals achieve the baby-doll quality she enjoys playing with, and it is one of the strongest songs on the album.

it is after this song, however, that the album really achieves perfection. 'melody of certain three,' is more of the wonderfully dissonant and loud br. from pre 'an expression of the inexpressible,' albums. 'hated because of great faults,' is another spare piece from kazu, and it's a lovely track. it is the next song that really takes the cake though, 'loved despite of great faults.' amadeo sings perhaps his loveliest song to date, and never stops revealing more noises the more you listen.

all the other songs complement the album equally. 'ballad of lemons,' is another short-ish electronic piece, 'this is not,' expands upon the bands often 60's influences by making a song that puts even serge gainsbourg to shame, 'a cure,' is a strange, wandering piece, 'for the damaged,' is a piano based lullabye, and 'mother' is a loud, punk song.

this album is truly a landmark in the bands history. upon listening to it, one wonders how much wonderful it can get...

Most bands write songs. With Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons, Blonde Redhead wrote and album. All the songs were masterfully put together. When you sit down to listen to this album, the songs blend in, creating juxtoposition or accentuating the previous song's great qualities. Kazu Makino's voice is hypnotic, a voice that can easily be compared to Thom Yorke's. The solitary piano in "mother" is intricately laced with her voice, and produces a great ending to the album. An amazing must have, music came back to life for me when i heard this album. Captivating from start to finish, you will not regret purchasing this album.

I really like Blonde Redhead. Yes-there are similarities to Sonic Youth and many others, but I think they are more consistantly great than many of their elders. I really loved In An Expression of the Inexpressible...they were beginning to experiment with all sorts of recorded noises and textures. And then Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons came out last year and I wasnt really that into it. I didnt buy the CD. I dont remember what my complaint was, but it took me seeing them perform the new material live for me to really like this album. Id seen them live before many times, but this time the music was really tight and very layered. And I LOVE her voice...it quakes and whispers in such a way, making it so recognizable and particularly fierce. Her singing on this album is by far her best...with some great sexed-up power and longing in her voice and some incredible tunes to accompany...namely "In Particular" and "For the Damaged." But my favorite song by leaps and bounds is "Loved Despite of Great Faults." With lyrics like "You will move with me...we will stay still, and words will move around us" -its very difficult to not be in awe. The use of an acoustic guitar here is unusual for them I think, but very beautiful, and his singing is pretty sexy and raggedy. I think its nice to have a record grow on you sometimes, because it suprises you in a way that is very refreshing. Its a great new step for BR. I think they are a really great art-rock band that has a lot of suprises still bunched up their sleeve. But please go see them live if you havent...if you dont believe now, you will afterwords.

This Cd was recorded in our barn in Woodinville Washington by Ryan Hadlock. These people are true artists and great spirits. There lable Touch and Go allowed then to create exactly what they had in mind pure and complete. It was a joy to work with them and honor to know them and just might be the best thing we have ever produced, Thanks for the great music.

The first thing you will notice about the latest offering from Blonde Redhead is the way the album is set up--it looks suspiciously like a concept album. Just put together the song titles from tracks seven through ten, and you have the complete (if somewhat cryptic) sentence, "This is not a cure for the damaged mother." You will also notice how several song titles involve word plays on the album title (or is it vice-versa?). But if it is a concept album, what is the concept? Though several of the songs are wistful or lamenting commentaries on relationships (minus the cliches you'd expect to find on albums by less-talented writers), there is still enough uncertainty of lyrical meaning (think Tori Amos without the fairy-princess aspect, and a more limited grasp of the English language) to come to a distict conclusion. Perhaps the concept was simply to write an album full of beautiful, haunting melodies, which brings us to the second thing you'll notice. Every album Blonde Redhead has put out up to this point combined their penchant for complex melodies--derived from retro French pop and romantic composers along the lines of Chopin--with a noisier, more sinister side. (This had led to numerous Sonic Youth comparisons, mostly by people who are obviously not terribly familiar with either of these two groups' material). These albums were beautiful in their lack of restraint, the wild, moaning guitars searching for and finding beautiful melodies in the oddest of places. On this new album, Blonde Redhead all but eliminate the noise aspect of their music, creating dark and beautiful soundscapes dominated more by forboding synthesizers and pianos than feedback and shrieking vocals (the two exceptions are the cheery, synth pop "This is Not," and the histrionic "Mother"). That's not to say that the melodies are any less complicated--if anything, they are *more* complicated. Every note, every electronic bleep is planned out, sounding almost as if there were a musical score and a conductor present at the recording session. And the relative lack of noise (relative being the operative term when considering songs such as "Melody of Certain Three" and "A Cure"), does not make the album sound more generic in it's pop-iness. Instead, it opens up the music so that the listener can really appreciate what a quirky and geniously innovative band they are listening to.

Here I am writing yet another review that probably no one will ever read. And why is that? Because, in case you haven't noticed, not a ton of people even know who Blonde Redhead is. This is not a good thing. Blonde Redhead is good...

As to their being Sonic Youth imitators, I have to say that Blonde Redhead is simply everything Sonic Youth should have been. Don't get me wrong; Sonic Youth is good, too. But believe it or not, I'm going to commit a little crime in the indie/art rock world and say that.....Blonde Redhead is better than Sonic Youth! Here are my reasons for saying this: Where Sonic Youth's lyrics are often cold, poetic, impersonal, and political, Blonde Redhead's songs are human. Their topics aren't general or broad. Indulge me, if you will, and imagine the two bands, Sonic Youth and Blonde Redhead, floating in the sky. When it's time for the songs to have topics, the two bands begin to fall to the earth. Sonic Youth breaks apart, scatters, falls everywhere, and thus reaches a lot of territory. Blonde Redhead stays together and zooms straight down for one area, one human being. The POINT is that Blonde Redhead is simply more human and individual than Sonic Youth. Sonic Youth makes itself a musical institution made up of 'underground indie rock gods'. Blonde Redhead is two Italian twin guys and a Japanese chick singing their best in a second language about their quite interesting personal problems (in this album, at least.) And they actually do a very good job of it.

Musically: There are times on certain Sonic Youth albums (ahem! Bad Moon Rising ahem cough cough Confusion!) when the music...well...simply could have done a whole lot more. Sure, the experimental quality is what makes it so great, but if you're getting in your car and its a great day, and you want to hear something good but something that's kind of a 'foot-tapper,' you are NOT going to throw in Bad Moon Rising. Sorry. The music on that album simply doesn't get loud when you need it to get loud. It repeats riffs ten or eleven more times than your musical needs ask for. It's an abstract guitar symphony with little or no...guts? to it, no body or mind. Well, stop worrying. Here's Blonde Redhead, who can take all the 'good' parts of those Sonic Youth songs, throw in some rhythm, make the songs about 'a person' rather than about 'conditions of people', and speed up, slow down, repeat, and change when they really need to. It's very refreshing. There IS a god!

In conclusion, don't take me too literally. Blonde Redhead DOES have their own sound, a very distinct one. But they are slightly reminiscent of Sonic Youth, and that is ONLY because they use the same kind of musical sounds (discordance, and that overall feeling of 'symphony rock' and make it into something every HUMAN ear can identify with.

If you buy Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons, be sure to listen to the words. Blonde Redhead seems to have some very....INTERESTING problems going on between them. If the story in the words is true, I hope the band doesn't break up because of it. If not, then I commend them for being amazing storytellers. And could Sonic Youth ever do something like that?

While I totally enjoyed their previous releases (especially "fake can be just as . . ."), I always kind of thought Blonde Redhead was a pop band hiding behind a wall of distortion, somewhat disconnected from their audience and even the music they were creating.

With this album, I feel like they finally discover the kind of music they were meant to create- this is haunting, well written and thought out pop. While Amadeo's songs somewhat retain the pace and tenor of some of their earlier albums, there is something in the essence of the songs that just feels different- as i said, it used to sound as if they were slightly disconnected from the experience (it's like the caught the unwound disease), but with this album, things sound, and feel, much more personal. Not that this sounds like 'pet sounds' but that be the best analogy for the development between this album and the last. Clearly, the song writing sounds more thought and there are almost none of the moments I found so troubling on earlier blonde redhead releases where a really good song was sort of broken up by an awkward part that didn't really stand up to the whole of the song. The only track on this cd i'm not into is the later track that is sort of a throw-back to the sometimes misdirected flailings of earlier albums. blonde redhead doesn't need to beat me about the head to make me pay attention.

Anyway, all I know is everytime i hear "hated despite great qualities" something, somewhere is aching.

I bought my first album ("Court of the Crimson King") back in 1969. I have collected well over a thousand records and CD's since then, but few have affected me as much as this one has. This CD has an ethereal beauty which is difficult to describe; the vocals and music merge seamlessly to create some magic! Do yourself a favor and buy this.

"Melody..." is singularly THE most depressing album I've ever listened to. Beneath it's often catchy pop drive and sweet vocals lies a tale of crushed love and the struggle to hold on in the wake of emotional disaster. The style, rhythm, and instrumentation can officially be set in stone as Redhead's very own; the closest comparison I can make is to some of Devics' music. Aside from the surface enjoyment of the nonstandard percussion and Kazu's oh-so-huggable voice, I recommend this album for its lyrical depth and memorable melodies.

If you like emo/indie/whatever you call it rock, this is what you must do: Buy this record and liten to it. You will not be impressed, but you must listen to it again. And again. Maybe once more if you have to. At this point, you will realize that Blonde Redhead is brilliant, and you must buy all of their other records, especially In An Expression of the Inexpressible. Trust me.