Customer Reviews

Picture Show

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have fallen in love with this album from UK's Buffseeds. I had it for a while, but had not gotten around to listening to it, as I have a sizeable pile of never played CDs. 'The Picture Show' is lush and melancholy with airs of Placebo and Feeder. Fans of shoe-gazer gloom pop will dig this record. Check it out!

There are times when you listen to an album for the first time and it feels perfect for the moment. Think of Coldplay's Parachutes or Feeder's Echo Park. The Picture show contains utterly beautiful, bitter-sweet, spirit lifting tunes, the sort of music that you hear snatches of during scenes of high emotion in Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Roswell. Kieran Scragg's haunting voice delivers lyrics which are deep, moody and moving over swirling keyboards and strings.Yet there are accelerator tracks of urgent guitars and driving drum rythms. A wonderfull uplifting and spiritual work of pop rock.

there's a little song that keeps popping up on my ipod lately, the song is called "Barricade" and it's been played several times in random mode on my train ride to work, that i had to pull my ipod out of my bag and see who is singing this song. well, it turned out to be the Buffseeds. i had had this cd and their "sparkle me" ep for a few months but never gave them the proper listening attention they needed. so i sat down and listened again. my conclusion...these are good songs and the Buffseeds are a good band with promise. alot of pretty good songs with a few great ones. but overall, i tend to get just a little bit bored. a nice little record, nonetheless.

This band from Devon, England has an interesting pop sound, even if the sounds seem to have largely the same loud jangly guitars and peppy midtempo percussion which tends to make the songs run together. "Who Stole the Weekend" seems to pop along with a strong melody, "A minute with you is better than a year with myself." "Ocean Blue" thunders pleasantly with Kieran Scragg's vocals always containing a bit of heartache. "The Picture Show" is a good effort that with a bit more variety in the songwriting and arrangements might be quite memorable. Enjoy!

The Buffseeds, a U.K. indie-rock band, are only just entering the music scene. But their full-length debut "Picture Show" is a very pretty album. Kieran Scragg's falsetto can be a bit distracting, but what comes after is a light, pensive little mix of rock and ballads.

A rhythm comes into the album from the very start: It opens with the sparkling, airy pop of "Sparkle Me." It's laid-back, but soars every now and then, on the back of a beautiful keyboard melody. On the other hand, "Casino" is gloom-rock, still soaring and exquisitely multilayered, given a few extra shoves with the echoing bass.

After that, the Buffseeds alternate between midtempo rock songs and ethereal pop ditties, both written to bittersweet lyrics about love, loss and loneliness. The latter sound a bit like Turin Brakes mixed with a bit of Mandalay. At times it sounds like Scragg is torn between wanting to be Thom Yorke and Billy Corgan -- the music is more like Radiohead, but when the music swells he lets rip like Corgan when he's really into the music.

That vague confusion is the only thing that keeps the Buffseeds' debut from being really outstanding. It needs a bit more musical complexity and passion -- THEN it will be really good. As it is, the midtempo rockers don't quite measure up to the airy, swirling Hammond ballads. They're pretty good and bittersweetly beautiful, but they're not quite there yet.

Kieran Scragg sounds completely androgynous here -- he may be the first singer I have heard with gender-bending vocals. Sometimes he sounds like a fey man, sometimes like a woman. It suits the shoegazer pop better than it does the rock songs, where he sounds like the music is going too fast for him to follow.

When the Buffseeds solidify their sound, then they will probably be an excellent band. Their debut is a pretty, airy pop collection, and if the wrinkles were ironed out it would be outright beautiful.

The Buffseeds, a U.K. indie-rock band, are only just entering the music scene. But their full-length debut "Picture Show" is a very pretty album. Kieran Scragg's falsetto can be a bit distracting, but what comes after is a light, pensive little mix of rock and ballads.

A rhythm comes into the album from the very start: It opens with the sparkling, airy pop of "Sparkle Me." It's laid-back, but soars every now and then, on the back of a beautiful keyboard melody. On the other hand, "Casino" is gloom-rock, still soaring and exquisitely multilayered, given a few extra shoves with the echoing bass.

After that, the Buffseeds alternate between midtempo rock songs and ethereal pop ditties, both written to bittersweet lyrics about love, loss and loneliness. The latter sound a bit like Turin Brakes mixed with a bit of Mandalay. At times it sounds like Scragg is torn between wanting to be Thom Yorke and Billy Corgan -- the music is more like Radiohead, but when the music swells he lets rip like Corgan when he's really into the music.

That vague confusion is the only thing that keeps the Buffseeds' debut from being really outstanding. It needs a bit more musical complexity and passion -- THEN it will be really good. As it is, the midtempo rockers don't quite measure up to the airy, swirling Hammond ballads. They're pretty good and bittersweetly beautiful, but they're not quite there yet.

Kieran Scragg sounds completely androgynous here -- he may be the first singer I have heard with gender-bending vocals. Sometimes he sounds like a fey man, sometimes like a woman. It suits the shoegazer pop better than it does the rock songs, where he sounds like the music is going too fast for him to follow.

When the Buffseeds solidify their sound, then they will be an excellent band. Their debut "Picture Show" is a pretty, airy pop collection, and if the wrinkles were ironed out it would be outright beautiful.

I adore this CD. It's got a unique sound and the lyrics are beautiful and intelligent. The music to go with it is just as wonderful. It's rare to find a CD that you can enjoy both the music and the lyrics the same. "Buy Her Flowers," "The Day She Fell To Earth," and "Who Stole the Weekend" are probably my favorite tracks. I don't know how to describe it words other than fantastic!

The Buffseeds, a U.K. indie-rock band, are only just entering the music scene. But their full-length debut "Picture Show" is a very pretty album. Kieran Scragg's falsetto can be a bit distracting, but what comes after is a light, pensive little mix of rock and ballads.

A rhythm comes into the album from the very start: It opens with the sparkling, airy pop of "Sparkle Me." It's laid-back, but soars every now and then, on the back of a beautiful keyboard melody. On the other hand, "Casino" is gloom-rock, still soaring and exquisitely multilayered, given a few extra shoves with the echoing bass.

After that, the Buffseeds alternate between midtempo rock songs and ethereal pop ditties, both written to bittersweet lyrics about love, loss and loneliness. The latter sound a bit like Turin Brakes mixed with a bit of Mandalay -- very smooth and a bit folky, but laced with melancholy electronica.

Vocally, what news is there? At times it sounds like Scragg is torn between wanting to be Thom Yorke and Billy Corgan -- the music is more like Radiohead, but when the music swells, and he's really into what he's doing he lets rip like Corgan. It made me think, "Steady, boy, calm down."

That vague confusion is the only thing that keeps the Buffseeds' debut from being really outstanding. It needs a bit more musical complexity and passion -- THEN it will be really good. As it is, the midtempo rockers don't quite measure up to the airy, swirling Hammond ballads. They're pretty good and bittersweetly beautiful, but they're not quite there yet.

Kieran Scragg sounds completely androgynous here -- he may be the first singer I have heard with gender-bending vocals. Sometimes he sounds like a fey man, sometimes like a woman. It suits the shoegazer pop better than it does the rock songs, where he sounds like the music is going too fast for him to follow.

When the Buffseeds solidify their sound, then they will be an excellent band. Their debut "Picture Show" is a pretty, airy pop collection, and if the wrinkles were ironed out it would be outright beautiful.

The Buffseeds, a U.K. indie-rock band, are only just entering the music scene. But their full-length debut "Picture Show" is a very pretty album. Kieran Scragg's falsetto can be a bit distracting, but what comes after is a light, pensive little mix of rock and ballads.

A rhythm comes into the album from the very start: It opens with the sparkling, airy pop of "Sparkle Me." It's laid-back, but soars every now and then, on the back of a beautiful keyboard melody. On the other hand, "Casino" is gloom-rock, still soaring and exquisitely multilayered, given a few extra shoves with the echoing bass. And in the Japanese import, there are three songs from the "Sparkle Me" EP: plaintive breakup song "Strawberry," awkward acoustic song "Everything You Touch Turns To Gold" and the poignant closing ballad "The Boy and the Motorcycle."

After that, the Buffseeds alternate between midtempo rock songs and ethereal pop ditties, both written to bittersweet lyrics about love, loss and loneliness. The latter sound a bit like Turin Brakes mixed with a bit of Mandalay. At times it sounds like Scragg is torn between wanting to be Thom Yorke and Billy Corgan -- the music is more like Radiohead, but when the music swells he lets rip like Corgan when he's really into the music.

That vague confusion is the only thing that keeps the Buffseeds' debut from being really outstanding. It needs a bit more musical complexity and passion -- THEN it will be really good. As it is, the midtempo rockers don't quite measure up to the airy, swirling Hammond ballads. They're pretty good and bittersweetly beautiful, but they're not quite there yet.

Kieran Scragg sounds completely androgynous here -- he may be the first singer I have heard with gender-bending vocals. Sometimes he sounds like a fey man, sometimes like a woman. It suits the shoegazer pop better than it does the rock songs, where he sounds like the music is going too fast for him to follow.

When the Buffseeds solidify their sound, then they will probably be an excellent band. Their debut is a pretty, airy pop collection, and if the wrinkles were ironed out it would be outright beautiful.

The Buffseeds, a U.K. indie-rock band, are only just entering the music scene. But their full-length debut "Picture Show" is a very pretty album. Kieran Scragg's falsetto can be a bit distracting, but what comes after is a light, pensive little mix of rock and ballads.

A rhythm comes into the album from the very start: It opens with the sparkling, airy pop of "Sparkle Me." It's laid-back, but soars every now and then, on the back of a beautiful keyboard melody. On the other hand, "Casino" is gloom-rock, still soaring and exquisitely multilayered, given a few extra shoves with the echoing bass.

After that, the Buffseeds alternate between midtempo rock songs and ethereal pop ditties, both written to bittersweet lyrics about love, loss and loneliness. The latter sound a bit like Turin Brakes mixed with a bit of Mandalay. At times it sounds like Scragg is torn between wanting to be Thom Yorke and Billy Corgan -- the music is more like Radiohead, but when the music swells he lets rip like Corgan when he's really into the music.

That vague confusion is the only thing that keeps the Buffseeds' debut from being really outstanding. It needs a bit more musical complexity and passion -- THEN it will be really good. As it is, the midtempo rockers don't quite measure up to the airy, swirling Hammond ballads. They're pretty good and bittersweetly beautiful, but they're not quite there yet.

Kieran Scragg sounds completely androgynous here -- he may be the first singer I have heard with gender-bending vocals. Sometimes he sounds like a fey man, sometimes like a woman. It suits the shoegazer pop better than it does the rock songs, where he sounds like the music is going too fast for him to follow.

When the Buffseeds solidify their sound, then they will be an excellent band. Their debut "Picture Show" is a pretty, airy pop collection, and if the wrinkles were ironed out it would be outright beautiful.