Customer Reviews

The Menace (Japan import w/2 bonus tracks)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I wore out the first Elastica CD and was so glad to hear of a forthcoming album 5 years later. I am happy to say the album is brilliant. The opening track "Mad Dog" is a bomb blast of keyboards, bass, guitar, and drums. Not to mention Justine's great voice. If you heard the EP and enjoyed it then you will love the LP. The songs are much more polished and have more Elastica and less of Mark E. Smith. The songs "Human" and "Nothing Stays the Same" have great melodies. "Generator" and "How he wrote the Elastic man" has a great mix of catchy syth hooks. To sum up this review I am very much into English indie and pop music. I own all the Blur, Idlewild,and Republica albums etc, and Elastica's "Menace" is my favorite album so far. I can only look forward to the singles now, and if I'm lucky they will tour the U.S. and stop by Arizona. Cheers!

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 The clever lyrics of 'Never Here' or 'Stutter' have been replaced by songs like 'Your Arse My Place' and 'How He Wrote Elastica Man'.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.

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.

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.

If you loved the first album, chances are that you will be disappointed with this new one. It's not that it is a bad album, but it just doesn't match up to brilliance of the first one. After 5 years, I think that I was also excited at what direction the band would go and it seems like they have stuck with the same sound but produced slightly inferior songs. If you've never heard Elastica's first album, I would definitely recommend buying this one first as it is pretty good and then picking up their first one to see why this band has had a cult following that has been rabidly awaiting new material for them for 5 years.

Let's get this out of the way right off: Elastica's long-awaited follow-up to their stellar debut is a disappointment. Five years in the making, The Menace comes to us with many expectations, too much innuendo (relationship problems, band strife, those pesky heroin rumors), and no major American label. The shock, then, is how pleasantly sloppy The Menace is. Whereas Elastica was kept in check by Justine Frischmann's punky tales of emancipation, the follow-up has no central focus. It's a bracing all night punk jam. It veers wildly from funk-rock ("Mad Dog God Dam") to a Fall-like throw-down ("How He Wrote Elastica Man" complete with Mark E. Smith vocals) to the Low-era Bowie-esque "Image Change" to ambient ("Human") to punk blues ("Love Like Ours") to a revved up cover (Trio's "Da Da Da", ha ha). As I said, no focus, yet Justine Frischmann's rock and roll posture and all-too-human passion keeps it real. The Menace has no real commercial prospects in this country, but that minor setback might be all it takes for this true rock-and-roller to regain her focus. Then she can set and/or break any limitations she pleases.

While Elastica still sounds like Wire, bandleader Justine Frischmann apparently borrowed the B-52s' keyboards, especially on "Mad Dog," "How He Wrote Elastica Man" and the deconstruction of Trio's "Da Da Da (I Don't Love You, You Don't Love Me)." While the keyboard sounds occasionally border on being a distraction -- unless you absolutely love the sound of Pong -- they work more often than not.

The slower songs -- "Image Change," "Nothing Stays the Same," "Human" -- give Justine's sprechensang (talk/sing, like Marlene Dietrich) a chance to shine. Singing the more raucous songs, though, Justine will make you remember that the catchiness of Elastica's previous hit "Connection" wasn't due entirely to the guitar lick nicked from Wire. Though their relationship has been over for a while, there is a distinct similarity between Justine's "rocker" voice and Damon Albarn (of Blur).

While not "pleasantly surprised" -- I expected it to be pretty good -- I am shocked by the way the sonic layers of voice, guitars, synths, are manipulated. "Miami Nice" wouldn't sound out of place on an Ultravox best-of, while the following song, "Love Like Ours," sounds like it could have been a Talking Heads original.

My advice? Buy it.

After 5 years, it's hard to believe that this is the best that Elastica could come up with. I was anxious to order this because their debut was/is one of my favourite albums of all time. This CD really had no high points for me. All of the tracks that I could bring myself to listen to more than twice, were just so basic. This CD has none of the infectious pop stylings of their debut, so if you are looking for another "Stutter" or "Connection" forget it!

To begin with, I have not heard Elastica's debut album and maybe it's just as well. The album starts off with the catchy "Mad Dog God Dam." "Generator," is a pure against the grain pop song. "How He Wrote Elastica Man," is a B-52's influenced song and holds up. "Image Change," is a haunting tune.
This album is pretty much pure punk/alternative music. The record consistentley maintains a mechanical, obtruse sound. Which is pretty daring for most pop artist these days.
Overall, the songs are very good, the vocals and instruments are well ochestrated. The record is well produced. The "theme," of the album remains the same thru out the entire record. The photo fold out of the CD features several pictures of the band (ala 35mm film). Could this possibly be a tribute to the The Rolling Stones "Exile On Main Street?" This CD didn't have to grow on me.

I've had this album since june because i paid import dollars for it. This is FAR from their classic self titled debut, and although it seems like Rolling Stone and Amazon seem reluctant to pick this album apart, it wouldn't be too hard to do. There are some strong points, most notably 'image change', 'da da da', and the first 2 or 3 tracks, but for those who loved the "hit-and-run" "rapid-fire" SMART trashiness of the first cd, forget it. This album just can't manage to put a string of songs together the way 'Elastica' did. i'd recommend this cd simply because it's better than 90% of the stuff out there now.