Neutral Sons. Four and a half sounds about right.
This sounds exactly like it is: an internet collaboration, a slice of cyberspace music. Nothing like Ariel Piccolo. There was scarcely an organic sound on this record.
Anyway, after a very silly opening bit, the CD kicks off with Drop Out, a rocking pop song. Energetic fun, catchy chorus. Can't find anything profound to say about it.
Russian Girlfriend is one of the highlights. Great lyric, melody and music gel nicely. A bit of silliness thrown on the end, but before that it's one of those "furrowed brow" songs. Keep an ear out for the yowl of one of the family cats, included three times.
Wings is a druggy end-of-June song. Very dreamy and soft-spoken.
New York Doll is about as close to commercial as I've every heard Knutson get (not sure about Cottrell). Knutson's voice and the music are perfectly synchronised. It's entirely electronic, but I can't really find anything to complain about here. Ah well.
Morose country music coming right up with RM 101. It's kind of creepy, almost morbid. Makes me wonder what it's actually about...
CD takes a tremendous dip in quality with Picasso Truffle. It's art for art's sake, it's irritating, tuneless, even pretentious. Sorry, but it strikes out.
Everything's made right with Vanilla Bean. Great lyric, but for me it's the waltz timing. I'm such a sucker for waltzes... Sophisticated song, like a lovely dream.
Then it leapfrogs into the really bizarre with Crooked Man. Mark telling a surreal little story with a budgie squawking in the background. Noisy little bird, weird little interlude for the album.
When We Go Hunting has a relatively short lyric, but the hook it provides more than makes up for it. I never tire of hearing this one.
Something organic finally appears on If You See Her Muse. Great lyric, but I really don't care for the presentation involved. It's a real dirge with great big pauses. Hard to get through.
Don't Worry returns to high quality. Cool lyric, lots of Big Brother overtones. The child's voice echoing the title phrase is a nice chilling touch. Understated music, melodic and elegant.
The Room Above is sunny, harmless pop music. It's kind of sweet in a weird sort of way. A real breather at any rate.
Roxy Stew is more of the same. It's even stranger, a bit livelier. Good piece, which I can't imagine anyone disliking.
Orchid Show Sunrise is impossible to recall, an off-the-wall instrumental that just happens to have Mark singing some bizarre piece of nonsense. Great song title though.
And Dark Universe is a spacey, stately ending. Zone out and draw pictures in your brain. Actually, do that for the whole album; it's great for that. I could write whole books just based on the images I've picked up from listening to Neutral Sons.
In the long run, Ariel probably outdoes this one, by being more cohesive, organic and stronger in the writing department. Neutral, an excellent debut, is just a little bit light. It's got some outstanding gems, two dreadful moments, and as a whole is an inventive electro-cyberspace fantasy trip. Really neat in a lot of ways. I wish them luck on any future projects they attempt.
Now, what shall I review next?
I hope Mark and I will be able to write another CD this winter!
ReplyDeleteThis CD had a bit of a formula, with Mark writing most of the music and me writing most all of the lyrics. Then we rushed most of it through for the RPM challenge in March, so I think a few tracks could have been tweeked a little more to better effect.
Love reading your reviews! How about Travelian Pets, if you're interested in another Plum disc?