The Menace

Elastica

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 22, 2000)
• Original Release Date: August 22, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Atlantic / Wea
• ASIN: B00004VW28
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #148,255 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Elastica's second album, The Menace, comes a full five years after their million-selling, self-titled debut. A long wait, to say the least, but The Menace doesn't find Elastica making a radical change from the angular pop of their first album. The departure of guitarist Donna Matthews (who still plays on two tracks, "How He Wrote Elastica Man"--which also features the Fall's Mark E. Smith--and "Image Change") steered the band away from their punkier leanings and allowed them to fully explore the new wave path that they started down way back in 1995. Keyboards and synths now blend more completely with their spiky guitars, as do cheesy Casio tone beats and retro-futuristic samples, resulting in such hyperenergetic numbers as "Mad Dog" and "Your Arse My Place." Elastica still wear their influences on their sleeves--yep, they sure do like Wire--and they even manage to fit a legitimate cover onto the album (Trio's 1982 hit "Da Da Da"). Five years on, The Menace sees Elastica on the same ground as their debut, but rather than simply retreading it, they just dig deeper and unearth more treasures. --Robert Burrow

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An exciting new-wave junkyard, August 22, 2000

By	Joseph Kugelmass (Irvine, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Elastica's The Menace does NOT follow the formula of their previous album. It is still new-wave and full of influences. Justine Frischmann still rules the record with riot grrl attitude. However, the album is grittier and looser and stupider than "Elastica". The clever lyrics of 'Never Here' or 'Stutter' have been replaced by songs like 'Your Arse My Place' and 'How He Wrote Elastica Man'. On 'How He Wrote...', they literally spell out their own name. There are ambient stretches of synth, followed by grinding guitar, and the transitions are often jerky. The Menace is a good and energized album that, oddly, sounds like the work of a band getting brasher and less mature.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I tried to love this cd, April 27, 2004

By	W. Johnson (The Mile High City) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There was so much to look forward to on The Menace. Unfortunitely where Justine et Elastica delivered one of the best albums of the 1990's, they fall very much off the mark here. But is it a bad album? No there are certainly enough songs that are good and fun, but it is not the overall listening experience that their self titled debut was. A debut so good that invariably everyone will compare their second and only album to.

But in Defence of Elastica, this is a different album with a different goal and a nearly soap operetic change in the band. Unfortunitely even taken as its own entity, without comparison to the first Elastica CD, The Menace is an average effort at best and perhaps a harbinger to the band's destruction shortly there after.

Elastica is dead, long live Elastica.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars still snarling pop-punk but with a new synth sound, October 1, 2000

By	S Cook "ninjagirl" (Dallas, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

I was one of those people who began to wonder if Elastica would ever put out the follow-up to their impressive debut. It's been 5 long years but it's finally here... but with some changes.

To start out with the line-up is different. Guitarist Donna Matthews, who played such a key role in their sound, is no longer in the band. She is missed, definitely, but the new more synthesized sound fills in her gap pretty well. At first I thought the onslaught of noisy keyboards was a bit much but the songs that feature them prominently soon became my favorites. Although I'm still not quite sure anyone actually knows how to play the instrument!

Some of the slower ones still remind me of the first album. Songs like "Nothing Stays the Same", and "Imagine Change." But like I said, I prefer the less mature, louder tracks like "Mad Dog" and "How He Wrote Elastica Man".

I think there is enough of the old sound to keep the old fans but perhaps enough of a change to gain them even a few more.