Customer Reviews

Seven Autumn Flowers

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

 

 

Rating: 6.1

Bobby Wratten got the name for his London-based band, Trembling Blue Stars, from a line in "The Story of O", librarian Pauline Reage's classic novel of S&M erotica. The similarities end there. "The Seven Autumn Flowers" is about as dangerously erotic as a handshake with your grandmother. Most of the songs on the album are the kind of melancholic romantic thing you hear in the last couple minutes of a teen television drama. You know, the slow, steady strum of an acoustic guitar, the soft, sensitive male vocals, and all the characters feeling bad, hugging, taking walks by the water, etc. Just imagine Matt Pond PA's "New Hampshire" being played on "The OC" (which actually happened recently).

Don't take this the wrong way; "Autumn Flowers" is a pretty good listen. There are some real gems to discover on this heartbreaking album. "The Rhythm Of Your Breathing" features a nice click-clack rhythm and a lovely chord progression that will keep you listening. The beautiful "One Prayer Answered" is simple and sweet, featuring a very romantic violin filling in the background in places. Backup vocalist Beth Arzy adds her brilliance to "Helen Reddy" and "Further to Fall." On the pensive, paralyzed "All I'm Doing Is Losing," Wratten sings, "I waited at the airport gate/ until your plane started to move." It's an effective, emotional song with a story, like so many songs on this album.

"Kensington Gardens," is a wonderful closer. Unfortunately, the American release of "Autumn Flowers" features four bonus tracks that actually detract from the overall product. However, the extra tracks aren't a complete loss, with "Hurry Home Through the Crowds" perhaps the best song on the whole album.

Running at sixteen songs and seventy-five minutes, "Autumn Flowers" can get a little old. You pretty much have to be in the same sorrowful mood as the lead singer to really enjoy it.

I don't like all the songs on this CD, some are just too slow, BUT, the ones I like made the album precious to me.
It's the case of all the TBS albums I know; about half is great, half I could live without(usually not bad, just kinda plain).
Great voice, nice arrangments, incredible guitars, beautiful melodies make this band a favorite of mine. Robert Wratten is somewhat of a genius.
On this CD I love Helen Reddy(rocks), beginning of a kind, moonlight on snow, Kensington garden and last port of call, all four have melodies and arrangments I find beautiful.
I also like a lot open skies(despite the simple drum machine beat and casio sound) and hurry home through the crowd.
I'd give 5 stars if the songs I find weak weren't there.
Personally, I'm glad the bonus songs are there, some of which I praised above.
Not everyone's cup of tea, but if you like TBS don't miss this CD.
If you like this type of music, check Mojave3, starting with out of tune, their second and(to me) most accomplished album. Neil Halstead's also a melody genius with a golden voice. Worth knowing...I got a lot of listening pleasure from most of their songs(though I don't care for puzzles like you, their new CD at this time, I find it commercial, "bubble gum").

Listening to a Trembling Blue Stars album is like looking at a painting by Turner. Everything seems hazy and samey at first, but if you keep looking long enough details will begin to reveal themselves, gently but inexorably altering your initial perception. There are always special nuances to these songs that will fascinate and surprise you when you least expect it. This can be said of any of the six albums the group have released so far and THE SEVEN AUTUMN FLOWERS, their fifth from 2004, is a perfect example of Bobby Wratten's art.

Is this indie-pop? What is indie-pop? The dynamics at play here are so much more: consider the housey groove of SORROW HAS A WAY and how comfortably it sits with the elegant string arrangement of FURTHER TO FALL; or marvel at how well the poppy ALL ETERNAL THINGS and THE SEA IS SO QUIET intersperse the flow of the shuffly ballads, among which you can hear the beauteous KENSINGTON GARDENS and ALL I DO IS LOSING; this is multifarious music, even drawing on dub and ambient soundcapes, a sound that builds warm, womb-like caves you will never want to leave.

As for Mr. Wratten, he is a master at writing songs about the eternal things humans keep looking for (and very rarely get); yet these are not songs about love, more about the love of love, and as such they are detached and sympathetic in equal measure. Eternal feelings (regret, joy, loss, desire) are minutely dissected and then framed by rural or urban vistas (both musically and lyrically) that set a perfect tone for every story. And even if we know that love follows a set pattern, yet we are always willing to listen, again and again, to Bobby's (and Beth Arzy's) voice telling us about it.

If you have recently become cynical about human relationships, stay away from TBS albums; listening to a couple of tracks might be enough to entrance you, and before you know it you will want to fall in love again, just for the sheer pleasure of feeling emotions pulse through your veins.

I adore TBS and this album. TBS are an acquired taste. You either get it, or you don't. Clearly the Ohioan author of the review above does not. Depressing.