Customer Reviews

Museum of Imaginary Animals

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The title of this album is a pretty good indication of its contents -- it's more or less a window into another world. Like our own, Pram's playground is three-fourths submerged in water. It's also bright and sunny about half the time, cold and dark the other half. But that's pretty much where the similarities end. Battered music boxes crawl winsomely across craggy glaciers; mermaids ripple sensuously through impossibly blue cocktails; bagpipes, theremin, and muted trumpet cut a graceful pas de trois on the dancefloor of a dark, smokey jazz club at the bottom of a sea of transparent molasses.

If you're already familiar with Pram and wonder how this compares to their other albums, I'd say this is easily their warmest and most upbeat work ever. Of course, this isn't a band known for either of these qualities, and this Museum certainly houses a dimly lit arctic expedition and an owl-filled night or three. But at least half the songs here present Pram at their most playful and joyous. I also reckon that the band's musical inventiveness is at an all-time high of consistency here, equally enriching their light and dark passages through this beautifully cracked alien landscape.

This album, though not my favorite Pram album(Wide Saragasso Sea), is worth it for the cover/jacket art alone with it's taxidermal dismorphia. The songs are less bizarre and less unfathomable than previous works, but they are no less interesting, charming, haunting, etc. I was particulary struck by the sadness of Rosie's lyrics, broken-hearted and love-starved. At the same time they are as imaginative and playful as ever. What can I say, Pram gets me excited about the sublime possibilities of musical expression.

I have most of Pram's CDs, and this one is excellent. I see on http://www.mrg2000.com/merge/bio.html?id=pram that they're touring the east coast. I'm tempted to fly over to see them. They are STILL my favorite band. Their fabulous melodies are like an upbeat soundtrack to a Brothers Quay film. These strangely comforting cloudy lullabies are half-remembered scenes from my dreamworld. All tracks require multiple listening for their subtleties. Thank you, Pram!

Musically adventurous. Pram evolves, but still sounds like Pram. It is difficult, though, to compare the new with the old (if you can find the old), except for the brilliant thread of Rosie's words which continues through all the albums. Some of the tracks on this one are uncharacteristically fun. You can't hear "The Mermaids' Hotel" without smiling. "Play of the Waves" is very cool and dreamy, and reminds me in an odd way of The Doors, "Riders on the Storm," although my comparison is strictly subjective. Is that a sample of "Ari's Song" by Nico at the beginning of "Mother of Pearl"?

every ingle song of avery album of this band is simply out of this world.....this album deserve not 5 stars i would give 10 stars.....allpram albums are magnificent....giving them less than 5 stars are a simply insult for pram......