Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Something new between the sun and the sea, July 30, 2007
Well, this is something new. I can't remember how exactly I came across this album, but it was here on Amazon, perhapse in a recommendations box several months ago. I like Indie rock, always searching for new horizons in the genre. And this was truly a find. Many months ago I'd never heard of the foursome called Electrelane from England, and I have yet to meet another person who has. But that's a beauty of underground bands such as this, they're untouched. Give them time though, and I honestly believe that this quartet of lasses will soon be recognized more thoroughly.
So I heard this album right here on Amazon, and immediately knew that I must have this album. I wanted a much closer look. It took me forever to finally track it down though. When I did, I couldn't wait to get home to my CD player and finally hear the album that had been playing around in my head for months, in entirety. Since a couple of weeks ago I have seldom stopped listening to it. It keeps playing on in your head, but not in an annoying way. You simply have to come back to it. It's more than just Indie music, its really it's own kind. Tough to describe because I've never heard anything like it before. It combines some generic traits of Indie with a little bit of electronica, and then throws them a lot groove! And the drum beats are so deliciously high school garagey sounding, the whole musical concept is just sort of innocent and that is the most attractive factor about it. It's new and innocent.
Again, the songs themselves are a bit hard to describe because there is nothing to compare them to. My favorites are "The Greater Times", which maintains a consistant beat. It is upbeat and escalates. "To the East" maintains the same disposition. "Tram 21" is totally instrumental, with a really nice groovy organ that I think you can recognize in the sample. Like the others, it is consistant. A good driving song. "At Sea" is sort of slow and haunting, but then of course Electrelane posesses that haunted sort of sound. This could have been a title track, and I guess because of the album cover, it sort of is in my mind. "Saturday" is almost instrumental, entertaining a long, voiceless intro that's very nice and cool. "Cut and Run" is possibly the best song on here. The instrumental arrangement is superb, introducing a ukulele to this song which is pure genius as it seems to gel with Electrelane's style completely. I listen to this one more than the others, and its the best new song I've heard in a while.
Again, maybe due to the exquisite packaging of this CD, I tend to think of the sea every time I hear it. A completely overcast background, with furious winds howling and no land in sight. The CD itself is very consistant from song to song. I cannot say exactly how this album stacks up to the other few Electrelane albums out there. I've checked a few out with what the samples have to offer, and with what you can tell from them I think this album is clearly the best. It is the only one that really maintains a definite personality. It has enormous character, and it sounds so new and fresh. It comes with a poster in the sleeve, that is a very nice piece of artwork, a watercolor I think that looks very 20s. A cool touch, and it also has the lyrics of each song on the back.
From the music, right on down to the packaging (which is the best I have ever seen in an album, very modern) and total appearance of the thing, this is a finely composed Item. I mean very well designed in entirety. As they say in the previous reviews, there is some really good new stuff comming out this year, and most of it is unheard of. Well this album from Electrelane takes the cake. It is the best one of '07 I have been lucky enough to hear. I strongly encourage you to try it out. It will be well worth your time.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Best album to date, more songs with lyrics than other albums, March 21, 2008
Electrelane knows how to rock it. To the moon. Maybe beyond.
Catchy, cool and well mixed, this album is the first one with a start-to-finish track listing that is balanced, cohesive and diverse.
I loved that "No Shouts No Calls" also experimented with female duets. "Cut and Run" was the best song on the album. It showed that they not only know how to use synthesizers, drum machines and keyboards, but they can also write fantastic lyrics.
Other queercore bands tend to have a lead vocalist, whereas Electrelane uses the girls' voices to play off one another other. Speaking of, this band does queercore right: they have yet to bemoan menstruation. It's nice to see some girls fronting one of the most respected bands in electrorock's male-dominated genre.
Buy this album if you like any of their others, or if you're wanting to hear Electrelane for the first time. Heck, if for no other reason, buy this album so the band can afford better equipment to produce the next one.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
More of the same, not that that's a bad thing, May 26, 2007
A consistent album, their fourth in the studio. Less angular than "Axes." Calmer than parts of "The Power Out." Less daring than the B-sides collection. The four young women from Brighton show as their title promises a steady direction forward on their voyage across interlaced keyboards, guitars, bass, and drums, all polished to a piston-sharp sheen.
The Too Pure label is appropriate, as this reminds me of vintage Stereolab-- and perhaps the mid-90s band Moonshake in parts. The four musicians, backed by Verity Susman's smooth controlled vocals, continue to mix a motorik beat in the livelier passages with softer-tinged tunes that saunter. I wish far more of the former were included, as I favor the faster songs, but this album does show welcome maturity in lessening the number of yelps and yodels that tended to become a stylistic tic on earlier recordings.
No false turns here. Each song avoids predictability, but the willful attempt on earlier records to be quirky has vanished. The craftsmanship with which this CD has been assembled shows in its confident poise and determined focus. It'll grow on me, I predict, and for accompanying you in the car or on a trip, it can be perfect music matching movement to contemplation to action.
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by Electrelane 
