Customer Reviews

Ratatat

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Before I go on to rant about how much I love this album, I want to give a warning to all those who love the radio music and MTV garbage: You won't like this. Ratatat will most likely appeal only to those who are fans of post-rock, downtempo, and other ambient music forms.

For those that are still reading, I can't recommend this album enough. Ratatat is made of two incredibly talented musicians; Mike Stroud and Evan Mast (the former of the downtempo group "E*Vax"). Anyone familiar with E*Vax may have thought their album lacking in melodic content. Ratatat takes Mast's prowess in beats, keyboards and programming and adds the melodic genius of Stroud's guitar playing.

The music has been compared to many different groups, so allow me to offer one more comparison. Think of The Album Leaf with flashier beats, less "real" (or unfiltered) instruments, and electric guitar instead of acoustic. The beats and basslines are almost always programmed and tend to use a bit of a videogame sound. On top of this is an electric guitar run through so many filters you can't always recognize it; and it is playing some of the most beautiful melodies I've heard in a while.

The coup de grace with Ratatat is their song writing ability. This duo does not fall into the ambience trend of redundant soundscapes or just adding in new loops every 8 bars. The melodies have verses, bridges and refrains and will throw you off with tempo changes, dynamics, and one of the most anticipation-inducing build ups in music history.

The first song is a little decieving though. It starts with incredible energy and a dance floor feel until about 2 and a half minutes in. It then subdues itself into a feel more fit for the remainder of the album. The album ends on the most beautiful downtempo song I've found to date. Yes it's redundant in the beginning but the build up is amazing and the anticipation before the climax is staggering. The peak of the song sounds like the musical incarnation of a state of Nirvana.

Anyways, at first you may just use this CD as background music due to its low-key and sublime nature, but give it a chance with some headphones on and I'm sure that you'll recognize the technical genius and wonderful songwriting that's going on here.

Ratatat sets forth to create something incredibly hard to create: a comprehensive album without a single true lyric. Sure, they have a guy talk at the beginning of a few songs, but he's never incorporated into any of the songs. This means several things: first the songs need to be more interesting musically than normal, because we don't have a story to pull us along; secondly, we can't get distracted by bad lyrics, only bad melodies - something I am happy to report do not exist on this lp. Ratatat pulls this off beautifully, bringing out the positive qualities of instrumentals and shirking the negative ones.

So the human instrument of voice may not be heard on it; but the subtle chord and melody changes from the guitar and keyboards put the idea of cluttering up these songs with words to shame.

The album starts of with a very heavy backbeat under the dancable song "Seventeen Years;" then, gradually, as the song goes on, it mellows out and ends at another place entirely from where it started. They never go back. That's not to say there aren't any up-beat, big back-beat songs, but not to the extent they start out with. I think it's a great kick-off to the album. Their mellow, Gibbard-esque songs lend themselves to repeated listens, and Cherry is reportedly one of the best make-out songs of the college generation. There's a lot to the disc, so it rewards repeated listens. An album worth owning, and an album worth living with.

I hope they do, with one condition: switch it up a bit. What we have here is a basic formula for rock-pop-hop. Guitars (backwards and forwards) dance out some chord progressions, get smacked by ghetto beats, ask for some next-round advice from synths in the corner of the ring. For most of the tracks, having no vocals works nicely, but the fact is that just a couple songs cry out for something extra. The closer "Cherry" would work in its current form only in the most background of backgrounds; with a new melody on top, and especially with a new sound in the palette, that C-major sweetness could really work wonders. If, on their next album, Ratatat decide to pull a Dntel, I don't think it could hurt (depending on their collaborators, of course) and might even bring them a higher success rate.

All this being said, when this record is on the mark, it's fairly sublime. "17 Years," "Crips," "Bustelo" and "Spanish Armada" are prime examples; had the entire record been filled with such successful tunes, I wouldn't be making suggestions. Overall, they have proven that they can make instrumental pop that handles on its own; the hooks on the hits are murderous. With some more sounds in the arsenal, they could really become an album duo.

I too first heard this band on a web H3 Hummer commercial, and knew right away that I needed at least 3 copies to play in each of my H3's that I own. So I sent my butler out to buy a copy for me, because honestly who wants to mingle with the common folk? Needless to say all my friends at the country club were jealous because I had the H3 soundtrack that they all desperately needed to complete their lives. Unfortunately that was a month ago, and I've since then had to pawn all my cd's in order to pay for gas.

If you are looking for a description I'd describe this as:

Video Game inspired. Other people have said this but it's
undeniable...this is video game final boss music. Some tracks are so emotionally intense its funny. This album is big on "Up front" production, meaning you hear no "room sounds", it's all hyper processed, in your face guitars and keyboards that sound like guitars plugged directly into your brain. The music is almost classical in it's chordal intensity and modulation...definately not punk ethos, 3 chord stuff. Each song is meticulously arranged...they keep you coming back to every verse or chorus with something fresh at all times.

There are a couple weaker tracks...but they probably serve to mellow out the constant intensity...so I guess when considered into the whole they are valuable.

Very original and if you don't like it would surprise me.

This is a very good album, the only problem I have with it is that at times the songs begin to feel alittle repetitive, but ususally the problem is shortly stopped. The first song is genius, and the last song is amazing (if you can get past the long introduction), the problem is that the rest of the album just doesnt quite live up to the first track. Its all good, but they really peaked on that first track, so it sets the bar for the rest of the album. But it is still a great album that I enjoy very, very much. Mixing rock with techno and being successful is a large feat that should be rewarded.

To the review below mine (its author)- I will take you up on that offer. I have heard a few Ratatat songs and I think it's phenomenal, so by all means, send away if you don't like it.

this music grabs you by the heart and never lets go!!!
each song is filled with melody and counterpoint bubbling up and building. some people call this video game music...no no. you need to listen to becks gameboy remixes if you think this is video game music. this is purely beautiful stuff... "germany to germany" could bring the world peace if it was played at negotiations.

They defo need to branch out - i hated the ratatat remixes cd because it was pretty much these tracks except remixed under crappy vocals, essentially a weaker version of the instrumentals. But in this cd, they have harness pure beauty and i think you'll see a lot of copycat acts really soon (myself included)

Brilliant. This is a mellow, yet intense new sound. I can best describe it as mamba electronic music with some processed guitar thrown into it. I am vaguely reminded of the video games UN Squadron and Herzog Zwei while I listen to this. This is music that celebrates normalcy and the fantastic that can be found in everyday, normal activities. Like I said before, it is intense mellow music that intensifies the everyday things (like doing paper work or driving to the bank). It is very creative and refreshingly new. I love it.

The album starts out great and kept me interested most of the time. Unfortunately, it gets a little to repetitive in the middle of the album and becomes a bit tedious to listen to the whole way through. Either way, a good disc, but I wish it had a little more surprise and a little less textbook structure.