Customer Reviews

Television Landscape

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

 

 

I found out about this album after reading about William Brittelle in the piece that the New York Times wrote on him. After purchasing Television Landscape, I've also since downloaded some of his earlier work - which is very interesting and quite different from this music. Basically, I have not stopped playing this disc since purchasing it - it is on constant rotation at our house. "Sheena Easton" is one of the best songs I've heard in a long time - strong, catchy, emotive and really listenable. The whole album is so compelling, and it sounds like nothing I've heard before. It's smart and sexy and really new.

Typically, when someone describes music as "eclectic" or "all over the map" I usually turn away, as more often than not it's an unfocused kitchen sink approach which comes off as dull and scattershot. That's somewhat the case here. There are many brilliant (or at the very least intriguing) moments but just as often I'm left wondering what the decision making process was behind some of the elements (Autotune in 2010, really?). And while I can't call any parts of this album outright bad, and some of the orchestrations are really quite nice to listen to as a whole, I find the soft rock approach to some tracks (however easy on the ears) to be a bit bland. That being said though, the stylistic transitions are never jarring or forced sounding. Overall a good disc, largely avoids the "kitchen sink" trap of these kinds of releases but in the end left me a bit flat.