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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
david fricke? what band were you listening to?, April 26, 2006
I love this record.
Honestly it's probably one of my favorite LP's i've heard in recent memory.
Eschewing the best parts of Built To Spill, Modest Mouse, 764-Hero, et al -- so pretty much every north western math/rock/indie artist --- BUT Figurines are Danish.
They have this odd off kilter swagger reminding me of the little known Giant's Chair or maybe even Braid. perhaps it's the amount of genuine heart you can hear in the record.
There's also a smidge of "art" in here - ala Pixies of Flaming Lips. (anyone remember early 90's guitar rock?)
I don't know a single member of this band, but i can get the gist that they'd be some endearing folk and honestly have some songs and music they've written and believe in here in "Skeletons".
With david fricke from rolling stone saying Figurines sound like Franz Ferdinand, i wonder if he's actually listened to the entire album - or at all.
The only simularity they may have with Franz is that they are a rock band with guitars - and maybe they'll share a stage now and then for festivals sake...
While Franz and the Artic Monkeys pilfer through the leftover riffs from the heyday of wire, PIL and gang of four..Figurines forage ahead and only sound influenced by their peers, not a carbon copy.
and that's a hard feat these days with the clone wars of garage rock.
I'd suggest this record to anyone who thinks the new Built To Spill is a little hokey after all the wait (because honestly - it is) -- and for all those who've found a love for sub pop's newest sensation - Band Of Horses (whom also worship at the temple of Marsch).
Or to anyone who's looking for a fun rock record - which reminds me of the salad days of "college rock" - an era when Frank Black was king.
BUY IT!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An exciting American debut, August 2, 2006
The Figurines, like other great groups such as Blonde Redhead and The Arcade Fire,cannot be easily pigeonholed. Nor should they be. Together since 1995, this is their first American release (though they have released earlier CD's in Europe which can be ordered through any good record store). Tracks 1 through 12 are very strong, displaying their musical and instrumental prowess. The vocals are outstanding.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Positively Skeletal - In A Good Way...., November 26, 2006
Okay - so here's an album of songs that, initially, don't make a whole terrible lot of an impression. I mean - first time through, there were a few scattered melodies that changed things up a bit, but the virtual homogeneity of the album rendered my (admittedly distracted) first few listens ultimately uneventful. However, having gone back at the end of the year and re-read several of the reviews posted for this album - reviews that raved about it more than I remembered them doing - I decided to revisit the disc in the hopes of discovering some ill-advisedly-passed-over diamond in the rough.
And I may have. The unfortunate truth is, I still can't really decide. The lyrics are fine - I mean, they're better than your average band can muster, and the vocals - coupled with those HOOKS - remain as good a selling point for this disc as they've ever been...but this just doesn't capture that indie-rock magic for me in the way it seems to for some people. I mean - you've got Band of Horses releasing a bona-fide stunner of an album, and this sort of pales in comparison, in my opinion...
But still - this is a bedeveling little disc, because it's gotten to the point where, now, it's stuck in my head. I can't really complain - songs like "Silver Ponds" and "Release Me On the Floor" deserve all the plays they receive on college radio stations as well as all the plays they received on what was lately my working iPod (tragic tale, that...)
In summation, and to attempt to curtail what has thus far been a focus on the negative, let me say what I've figured out - or rather, what I've decided - about this album.
The first few times you listen to it - all you really gather from it is the basic structure of the songs - the skeleton, if you will; but after a few listens, moments that you had been glazing over while listening to begin to flesh themselves out, and come alive. This becomes the vibrant album full of color that the album cover barely hints at. You see, the first few times you look at the cover, you see black and white....but if you look closer, you see red, blue, even a little orange and a hint of green that come out with just a slight bit more than your average once-over. That's the story of this album, too. Underneath the misleadingly skeletal, almost cookie-cutter-seeming song structures with their seemingly obligatory hooks, there's a wonderful, rock-solid indie pop album, the likes of which seem to be coming back in a big way - and oh, how welcome a return it is.
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