keepers 3
keeper avg .231
The eleventh album, recorded in Iceland and Berlin, leans more toward vibe-y, groove-y pieces than fleshed-out verse-chorus-verse-bridge songs. Though most of the songs do have dance-y beats, Anton Newcombe manages to give each song a unique feel that makes the sound hard to define. Some songs are absurdly simple, such as the march-beat "Let's Go Fucking Mental"****, with the title hilariously chanted (la la la la), and "Feel It"****, which while repetitive does a good job catching rave energy. "This Is The One Thing We Did Not Want To Have Happen" ("we were strangers when we met") is kind of inane but kind of cool with a fast industrial groove and lots of electronic noise, while "The One" could be described as similar but without the interesting parts. "Someplace Else Unknown" is also electronic, but slows the tempo down some ("damn m-f-er man I need to get high"). Meanwhile "This Is The First Of Your Last Warning (Icelandic)" is dance-influenced, making little pretension toward rock at all. Speaking of non-english tracks, "Detka! Detka! Detka!" (baby, baby, baby in ruskie) sounds a little jokey with a bouncy feel, off-kilter guitars, and crooning in Russian but it's fun. "Tempo 116.7" combines trip-hop with a plaintive "eastern" snake charm flute-y melody; it may be the most direct predecessor to the eastern-influences on Aufheben, the next album. A few songs feel maybe too familiar. "Superfucked"**** seems to borrow a bit from 80's hit "Lets go all the way" (by Sly Fox in 1985), but it's a good tune and fairly nuanced. And "Our Time" is a total homage to My Bloody Valentine, who is obviously a huge influence on Newcombe (BTW the previous album was called My Bloody Underground). Since MBV hasn't given us anything better since 1991 (note I said "better") I'll give them a pass. The album is concluded by "Felt Tipped Pictures Of Ufos", a dreamy collage of quotes by and critical commentary about John Lennon. It seems obvious at first but the juxtaposition of the viewpoints is interesting.
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