Intelligence Records Bureau - Part 4.

Crikey it's nearly the end of February and yet only now are we getting round to reviewing the Royksopp album. It's poor, I know, But wait, it gets worse. Some members of the IRB haven't bothered to write their reviews yet, even after all this time. Shocking. A thorough thrashing with the Daily Mail is the only answer. One suggestion is that the album is a little on the bland side and thus some of us found it hard to summon the creative energy to write about it. One of our correspondents Ian, didn't actually write about it...but submitted a review of...errr something! Enjoy.

Roksopp - Melody AM.

Ian F
Please excuse the partial disregard I am about to show for this music club’s aims and values.  However, as we strive for an honesty and true evaluation of the music presented to us we can only write what we truly feel and, unfortunately, during a month when I should have been listening to the Soppers called Royk frequently I instead rediscovered the primal urge and splurge of the Stooges.  The rare, raw, vitality of that groups debut platter got me hooked up and strung out all over again.  I was sixteen once more.  I couldn’t stop playing their seminal first record.  I’m older, possible wiser, and hopefully more cultured than in times past when I frequently became addicted to certain bands, or certain sounds. But, just as in those hedonistic times of yore - many full moons, and a lot of howling ago, when Iggy first punctured my senses - I got excited all over (and all over) again.  The years haven’t dulled the pure power of ‘The Stooges’.  They command and demand you listen.  So, I did.  Its energy was inspirational, and forty years on still is.
 To be honest with you I played Stooge music over and over and over again because I wanted to.  I didn’t want to play ‘Melody A.M.’   Yet, for you dear readers (are there any readers out there?) and my fellow club critics I have made some sort of effort, and while I would rather prattle on about the guy they call the Iggster, honey, I will instead divert my auditory  attention and subsequent penmanship to Roysopps’ not unlistenable music.
 Iggy and his Stooges weren’t musicians and they certainly weren’t clever lyrically (“Last year I was twenty one / I didn’t have a lot of fun/ now I’m gonna be twenty two / I say ‘oh my’ and ‘boo-hoo’.” Is either the greatest or most puerile couplet in rock?) but you get off on the energy and the feel.   The same could probably be argued in favour of the the less than rocky Royksters producing a certain feel that sustains constant listens.  Also, Stooges could hardly string two notes together and it could be argued – not necessarily by me, but stick with it, will ya - that twiddling a few knobs and utilizing auto-tune does not proficient musicians make.  Royksopps don’t write lyrics or not many so, perhaps, 43 years after ‘The Stooges’ is  ‘Melody AM’ it’s natural DIY consequence.  Perhaps.

Well, perhaps not.  Stooges couldn’t play but made the only music they could because they wanted to.  They had fun doing it.  Royksopp and a plethora of bands, over the last two decades especially, make music because they want to be rich, be famous and / or critically appraised.  Royksopp don’t seem to be doing this music thang  for the pure passion of performing.  They are from the new(ish) pop intake who make experimental music (now conventional) that fits with the guidelines laid down for success.  With Royksopp, and their breed, as far as reaching out and affecting people it seems Skypes the limit.

It’s not that music made for the masses, or for tragically hip trendy middle mass majorities, can’t be fun and enjoyable.  It doesn’t mean it has to be sans credibility.   The kind of easy listening evidenced on ‘Melody AM’ has it’s place.  I like the Carpenters as much as the next in-denial, grown-up and still groovin’, post punk adolescent, but for musical satisfaction I sometimes just want some two note guitar caterwauling to fuck it’s way outta the mix and into my ears, or for a singer to try to free himself from lumpen emptiness of his existence, slashing through the niceties, to scream that he wants to be my dog!  Those sort ofsounds on this CD would have stirred me from a tranquilised by technology abstraction and made me want to play Royksopp some more.
 Instead this album reminded me of my school days, well, in fact my school holidays.  This as you may well know was back in the days before digital and day-time telly.  In that long lost past, when me and the majority of fellow reviewers, were larky lads and Bowie was a boy, there used to be what they called Trade Test Transmissions.  The Test Card as it was better known.  There was a girl at her blackboard and in the background while customers in shops browsed new televisions nice music played continuously for the TV’s displayed.  The music was inoffensive and was chosen so it wouldn’t distract from the sharp picture, lines and colours on the screen.  That music sounded every bit like ‘Melody AM.’
 So, are Royksopp merely the new James Last?  I’m not sure whether I look on my experience of listening to this album as relaxing or soporific.  I have the feeling that if my Iugs hadn’t still been yearning the sandpapering ‘The Stooges’ had been applying recently while I tried to pay attention to ‘Melody AM’ I would have said the former.  Now, having thought about this, after just writing the above , I’m not sure.  I do believe that if I hadn’t been reviewing this album and therefore thinking about what I would be writing it is possible that the album would have sent me to sleep.
 That is not to say I was bored.  I wasn’t.  Royksopp is not boring.  Well, not totally.  ‘M A.M.’ is an album that does what it is supposed to do. It makes me feel laid back, happy and carefree. Well, I think it does.  As is now obvious to you I’m undecided about this album, and as I’ve mentioned previously this is music that has a place it’s just not that its’ place is not at my dirty, stained, and Stooge encrusted table.
 Yet, just as sulphates and phetamines encouraged my head first lunge into the Stooges maelstrom first time around I’m sure a contemporary stimulants of choice would enhance my appreciation of Roy. k. Sopp and his band.  We all need something  to hang our hats on.  You probably need the right drug, the right mood or to be in the right place at the right time with the right person to benefit from for ‘Melody AM’.
 It’s either that or the summer!  I believe the sun rather than the recent snow would have increased my enjoyment.  While listening I kept on imagining sun, sand, and a deep blue sea when listening.  I was imagining me and sexy girl, thighs entwined with mine, on a white sand beach, with only the deep blue ocean for company, no one else in sight just us and Melody AM playing and me poised, panting at her portals….  but, I digress again.  In fact I seem to have been digressing all over the place….
 Melody AM can be fun.  It can be enjoyable and there’s more happening than you notice on first listens.  It isn’t ‘The Stooges’.  Instead there’s happy, sweeping melodies.  There’s also the synthesized sax that comes in, and then takes over on ‘She’s So’, that attracts the ear, and there’s the whispers and vocalised moans that are subtly introduced at other moments.  At times funky beats threaten to take over but don’t unfortunately, instead they remain in their place, well contained, and user friendly. 
 In the end just as Like ‘Ane’ on ‘The Stooges’ the track ‘Royksopp’s Night Out’ explains much.  There’s a distinct change of pace.  The Royksters almost rock out on this one.   They almost get down and dirty.  They at last seemed prepared to give it some welly and break free of their constraints but then do so only in a playful way and definitely within their self defined limits.
 For me the problem with this album apart from it not being Iggy is as I tried to outline at the beginning of this piece is that there are a lot of reasons I should not like this record, and another load of reasons why I haven’t enjoyed as much as it appears others have.   So, I could carry on knocking ‘Melody AM’ until it tumbles and falls but in the end it is an album I have quite liked.  It’s an album that has remained in my collection for quite a few years now just waiting for that moment that might be right to play it.  That moment hasn’t been over the last month.  So, in the meantime, while we wait, just leave me to James Osterberg with his opening gambit,  “Alright!  It’s 1969 OK, all across the USA, Another year for me and you, another year with nothing to do!”
68/100 Andy DI picked this album because, some years ago, I’d somehow loaded So Easy onto my iPod. I don’t remember how or why; but the shuffle function delivered it to me a few months ago, and having not heard it for years, I remembered how much I used to like it.
 Brilliant: that was the record club album sorted.
 It’s not a genre of music I ordinarily gravitate towards – mainly because it’s usually a bit crap. The scope for pretentious, self-indulgent bobbins within ambient/trip-hop/whatever is virtually limitless, with all irritation that can cause. But if it was all like this, maybe I’d like the whole genre a bit more.
 Straight away it launches into So Easy, and that song establishes a running theme of slow, downtempo beats, a dreamy layer of synth on top and lyrics that can never quite be discerned, but which always seem to fit. What IS being said in So Easy? I’ve never worked it out. I don’t think you’re supposed to.
 Throughout, a whiff of slight navelgazing pervades (Sparks is a notable example); while In Space oddly reminded me of Children by Robert Miles, one of my favourite ever tracks – the main difference being that In Space fails to hit those heights and is the album’s first real dud. There’s occasional levity, with Poor Leno featuring more ethereal lyrics but being studded by what sounds strangely like steel drums – perhaps the last thing I expected to hear, but it works beautifully.
 It rarely labours, as so many albums do. The instrumental-only Röyksopp’s Night Out introduces the first hint of urgency as the album nears its end, before the simply gorgeous Remind Me, featuring – really – identifiable lyrics, which is a sudden, strange and clever surprise.
 She’s So tries to be clever in a different way, providing an aching sax interlude – I liked the idea more than the execution. Fitting, perhaps, to end with the quirkiest track of all: the fragmented, troubled 40 Years Back. It makes no sense. Not all of this album does, but every listen unearths something new, and despite its downbeat nature, it lifts the spirits on each occasion. A simply beautiful album.
 88/100 Tony DA Norwegian band,  hmmm death metal. Unfortunately not. Although that was a bit hopeful on my part.
So to the music, and straight into track 1.
So Easy- the opener is instantly recognisable. It was used by T-Mobile for some ads and also on channel 4 for bits and pieces.  I like this song, it has a haunting background coupled with a great bass-line. A great opener that chugs  along and gives you a great uplifting feeling. You find after perhaps only as many as 2 plays you are humming along with a warm glow.
Eple- continues both the themes of jollification and tv ads. This track being used by Apple. It's an electronic foot tapper.
Sparks-sees the mood slow down with the first real use of vocals. The strong bass sound keeps the song rolling along and the strange, almost distant vocals keep you hooked.
In Space- Has a slow start before what will become the obligatory boppy  electro nondescript drivel.
Poor Leno- Sees the tempo step up, and for me one of the stand out tracks finding me wanting to sing along. The vocals just seem to roll off the tongue and it has you humming.
A higher place- starts with the feel of  "once in a lifetime" by talking heads, before again drifting into oblivion with some strangely haunting vocal sounds.
Royksopp's night out- has an electro western movie type sound to it. You can just see the cowboys riding into town on their horses to this tune. 7 minutes though!?
Remind me- is another track that was used in an advert. For an insurance company I think. It's a song that is not un pleasing on the ear.
She's so- starts off with a saxophone, or at least an electronic version of one, and sounds like it could be used for some seedy scene in a movie. Then that all too familiar drum machine comes in to give it "that" feel again.
40 years back/come- Reminded me a little of the opening track "so easy". Then it just drifts into nothing ness, and so ends the album.
On the whole this is probably an easy to forget album.
It reminds me of the sort of music that you would come across being played in the supermarket, or in perhaps a lift. Not an album I will really go back to.
45/100

Kev B

After listening to the album several times over it became infectious mainly due to the diversity of the tunes played out by the Norwegian pair making it pleasant on the ear drums.  Not an instant success and consigned at first to a lazy Sunday afternoon but as stated earlier most of the tracks won me

over due to variety in the use of keyboard electronics  and the synthesisers.

So Easy and Eple are classic examples of easy listening with a fine beat and good use of the electronic keyboard. In Sparks there was a distinct lack of !  This was one of the tracks I was disappointed with describing it as lacking character .

In Space picks up the tempo  building up to my favourite track which is Poor Leno , this track is a fast paced dance track pouring energy and one to bounce along in the car to.

This debut album by the Norwegian pair returned  to the down beat tempo with A Higher Place and Royksopp s Night Out.

Overall an album to chill to whilst enjoying the various tempos.

60/100

So....despite the apparent lack of interest Melody AM still scored a respectable average of 65.(or 43 if the assumption is our 2 correspondents who couldn't be arsed scored it zero!)

Anyway, there is good news afoot. Tony D has chosen the next month's album...and it is No More Heroes by The Stranglers. Something to really get our teeth into I am sure you will agree. Reviews will be in...sometime. We hope.

Intelligence Records Bureau - Part 3

Happy New Year all you TTID readers. Full as we are with food and alcohol, we are signing off the old year with reviews of a Christmas album, to get it all out of our system in one huge festive purging. I know, I feel a bit sick now as well.

Tracey Thorn - Tinsel And Lights

Dave C

I was determined after two current albums, we should dig up some old classic. But December’s choice falling to me just as one of my favourite singers (Tracey Thorn) taking on one of the most soppy cheese producing of subjects (Christmas) was ‘unpassupable’

An interesting(ish) counterpoint, on the last album we reviewed, we had a song entitled Misery which was rather jolly, and this one starts with one entitled “Joy” which, on first hearing, seems rather lacking in said emotion.  However further listens reveal that, over the delicate bass, slightly tremulous picked guitar and sensitive but surefooted piano, it expresses that (for the non-religious), after the unfettered excitement of childhood and the riotous celebration of young adulthood, the sentimentality and family based traditions of Christmas evoke the simple but deep seated emption of joy. And that joy offers, not merely a refuge from, but also a base from which to fight back against, life’s vicissitudes.  It is one of two original compositions and the best track on the album by some distance. The XX would do well to listen to the singing here.

The other Thorn composition throws up another counterpoint “Tinsel & Lights” lyrically and musically being the expression of what the more genteel, well-heeled types were doing in the big apple whilst “The Fairytale Of New York” was unfolding. It’s the most upbeat, musically free and joyous track on the album.

The rest of the songs are wide range of covers, which generally showcase Tracey’s voice well and make most of the original vocals seem somewhat pale. The one Christmas standard “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” is done with subtle rather than lavish strings and sung splendidly with that tone of warmth with slight underlying sadness that no one else does quite as well.  Joni Mitchell’s “River” whilst not a standard has been covered many times but again suits Tracey’s voice very well. Unfortunately the same can’t really be said of the White Stripes “In The Cold Cold Night”  I think Poison Ivy from The Cramps would do this well, but the line “When my skin turns into goo” seems particularly incongruous here.  Hard Candy Christmas works better and seems more personal here than in its multi-person original in “The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas”.  Ron Sexsmith, Sufjan Stevens, Randy Newman and Green Gartside make this a far cry from your average Christmas album (indeed it’s more seasonal than specifically  about Christmas). The remaining highlight being the duet with Green Gartside on Low’s “Taking Down The Tree”.

Overall, it’s hard to argue that this is an essential epoch-making album. But it will certainly become a part of the joy of my future Christmasses.

75/100

Rich C

I have been a fan of Tracey Thorn’s music since the Marine Girls. I loved her early acoustic/indie solo album A Distant Shore and like many people from Hull I enjoyed her and Ben Watt’s rise to success as Everything But The Girl, taking their name as they did from a furniture shop that was opposite the pub that gave it’s name to a legendary “crawl” in the 80’s called the Zoological. Their Hull University student days, coincided with my first days out and about as a young man finding his way in the world, and in many ways they provided the soundtrack to a lot of that.

There were times when EBTG’s music didn’t quite do it for me though. Mostly when they seemed to run out of ideas after their initial albums. Those soulful, mournful ,completely English jazz tinged ballads got a bit boring quite frankly. But that was OK, as Ben and Tracey realised this too and changed their approach based on the influence of the new dance music of the late 80’s/early 90’s that permeated just about every strand of music in one way or another.

The albums they released in the 1990’s like Walking Wounded and Temperamental were, for me, even better than their initial output and saw them develop a style of music that whilst being incredibly redolent of it’s time in musical history, also saw them create what I believe to be their finest and most timeless work.

On listening to Tinsel and Lights my first thought, rather oddly, was what would it be like to be Ben and Tracey’s kids? Mum, quietly getting the Christmas shopping done and preparing the nut roast etc, while Dad is out, again (!), DJ’ing at some incredibly hip club into the early hours.  On Christmas Day they will all be communicating via iPad, whilst each recording their own tunes on Garageband. Kinda the polar opposite in England to the Royle family.

Anyway – to the album. Based on all of the above, I really wanted to like it. Tracey’s voice is, let’s not beat around the bush, an English treasure. Tinsel And Lights is an album mostly of covers with a couple of self-written festive tunes thrown in, including the title track, which along with Joy and Hard Candy Christmas have just the right amount of nostalgia and fond memories mixed with a certain sorrow that we all experience at this time of year. Indeed the title track is clearly a bid at outdoing Fairytale Of New York in a sense. It fails, but it’s close.

Where I struggle with the album is with it’s inability to keep up the quality levels throughout. It’s just too inconsistent in that respect. Joni Mitchell’s River is a very decent attempt, but The White Stripes In The Cold, Cold Night is I’m afraid, bloody awful. Tracey, it’s a blues song, you can’t sing the blues. Randy Newman’s Snow is dull, dull, dull but Taking Down The Tree is livened up by Green Gartside’s amazing voice (I have to confess to binning this off for Scritti Politti’s Songs To Remember the first time I played it; now there’s an album). Sufjan Stevens’ Sister Winter and the standard Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas are nice enough, but it just doesn’t make me want to dive into it as a warm, homely, chestnuts-roasting-on-an-open-fire kinda thing.

My Christmas album last year was Kate Bush’s 50 Words For Snow (reviewed here on TTID) and I couldn’t help but compare the two, perhaps unfairly, as Ms Bush I’m sure will have spent several zillion more hours on her work than Tracey will have done. But I think it shows that more is needed, even from “just” a Christmas album, to cut the cranberry these days.

In summary, what I’m saying is , I want a new Everything But The Girl album. Get those Garageband mixes together and get in a proper studio with himself!

52/100

Tony D

Well, I'm not a fan of Christmas so the thought of having to sit through an album full of Christmas songs filled me with dread to say the least. I vaguely remember Tracey Thorn at her best all those years ago so was willing to give this album a fair go. I've listened to the album probably more than I wanted to, so much so that I even started to sing along to the odd track!

I'm not sure if this was a genuine album or a money making exercise. Not all the songs are full of the cheer of the season. "Hard Candy Christmas" isn't really about Christmas either but probably one of the best songs getting me to tap me stubby little toes.

There are only 2 self penned tracks on the album, "Joy" and the title track "Tinsel and Lights" both looking back on times that really didn't, ironically seem to fill her life with joy.

`Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas', the only traditional Christmas song on the album......well that I recognised anyway, was done in a way that wasn't too annoying.

"Snow" was another sad song but good nevertheless.

There are a few electronic based songs on the album, "Taking Down The Tree" , featuring Green Gartside from Scritti Politti. "Sister Winter" and "Snow In The Sun" also lean towards the electronic side.

I really wanted to hate this album when i was first presented with it but found that no matter how hard I tried I really couldn't. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's my favourite album ever and I probably won't listen to it much ever again but it's not the worst in the world.

60/100

Andy D

I wanted to like this album as soon as it began. I wanted to like it for quite a few reasons. It was so far removed from the typical Christmas album you felt it deserved a chance of success. No slick commercialism. No cheesy festive melodies tainted it, whether they were knowingly ironical or simply brainless Xmas-by-numbers. It wasn’t afraid of looking at the more sombre side of Christmas, a time of year that isn’t always a picture-postcard riot of festive merrymaking or an Albert Square-esque carnival of despair and low farce, but rather a quiet, sometimes dull, maybe sorrowful time of year.

A noble idea indeed, hence one’s quiet rooting for the album to succeed. However we’ve all had lofty dreams that didn’t work. I never became an astronaut, or the first man to score 10,000 Test runs for England. I didn’t even get to play centre-forward for City, despite most able-bodied citizens in East Yorkshire seemingly having been in with a chance at some stage. So dealing with vaunting ambition meeting respectable but not giddying attainment is something we must all do, and it’s something this album must similarly cope with.

Huge ambition is to be respected, of course. And this isn’t a failure; far from it. The voice is impeccable throughout, an aching, wistful note that works particularly well on Joy, Maybe This Christmas and the signature song Tinsel and Lights. The mood of the album works – it seeks a reflective note and urges similar introspection of its listeners, and that too is a triumph. Where it’s let down is with a pretty stodgy cover of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (not because it’s a cover, as most of the songs were) but because it jars. Why, when seeking low-key pondering, insert this? A poor choice. With twelve tracks, it felt a couple too long and the quality sagged occasionally.

Lyrically it’s up and down - Hard Candy Christmas and Taking Down The Tree were my favourites, the latter being perhaps the best song on the album. However, musically it’s very average. Yes, it’s supposed to be unobtrusive, but to the point of being wholly unmemorable? Perhaps that’s me missing the point, and maybe it’s not meant to compete with Thorn’s excellent voice, but it doesn’t feel as though it complements it either, and leaves her carrying the whole album through the depth of her voice and the originality and scope of her idea.

Luckily she does, but it’s a close call.

55/100

Ian F

“I wish it could be Christmas everyday!” sang Roy Wood.  He wasn’t speaking for me.  Bah! Humbug! An all that.  Not being a fan of Christmas means that I have generally steered clear of recordings celebrating the season since somewhere around 1974.  I was less than grateful, therefore, to be invited to Tracey Thorn’s latest song gathering.   

The singer offers little in the way of Christmas cheer when welcoming us with the words “When someone very dear / calls you with the words everything is all clear/ that’s what you want to hear / but you know it might be different in the New year.”

Given that these lyrics are from a song titled ‘Joy’ I was a little happier.  The less than celebratory sentiments encouraged me to stow my hat and coat and to give the lady a chance to impress with her festive fare.

This is Tracey Thorn so I wasn’t really expecting frolicsome and frivolous seasonal fodder anyway.  My most lucid memories of Tracey and Ben Watt, apart from two or three excellent early to mid career albums, were of them as miserable looking couple with long coats to match long faces as they paraded around Hull when at the university and starting out as Everything But The Girl. 

I’ve followed our erstwhile adopted local lasses career from a distance since then and have always been interested, If not completely enraptured, by her her output. Given that her most recent efforts have taken a more electronic direction this, is almost, for the most part, a return to strummed strings and/or piano mid paced EBTG - and it does feature Watt on guitar. 

So, this brings us back to those opening lines.  They possibly refer to the life threatening illness her partner suffered a little while back but the song as a whole has more to do with the singer attempting to make the most of what joy the world only occasionally offers. 

Not a glad-tidings start to this ‘Tinsel and Lights’ party.  But, then, the  52 year has always been best when her voice is given is allowed to envelope true melancholy and that is certainly true with this album.

The opening track is only one of two Thorn originals.  It settles us into a run of four successive heart rending songs.  ‘Hard Candy Christmas’ - most famously recorded by Dolly Parton- follows ‘Joy’ and although not a great song it is carried by the always emotive yet warm Thorne vocals and perfectly compliments this opening serving of songs

The mood continues with the voice and piano dominated ‘Like a snowman’ which again like ‘Joy’ appears to suggest that you take whatever happiness you can get because it won’t last forever. It is followed by jaunty paced, jingly, ‘Maybe this Christmas’.  It has a happier feel and is faster than what has gone before and brings to a finish a fine first course of tunes.

We are now nicely settled in the comfy armchair of melancholy and looking forward to more songs sung with satisfyingly serious intent.  However, this is where Miss Thorn decides to liven up proceedings with Jack White’s ‘In The Cold, Cold Night’ and misses the spot.   The track injects a harder feel into the festivities.  A change may well have been needed and although it does add life to the party and I don’t dislike the song or its interpretation but it doesn’t really work and is the first track here where you feel something is missing.   The problem is that it’s not really a song that Miss T should be singing.  It is where she is least convincing.  For all her vocal qualities she doesn’t have the teasing timber in her voice to deliver lines like “I don’t care what people say/ I’m going to love you anyway” or it’s refrain “Come to me again in the cold cold night.”  Thorn simply can’t do cougar.  Her voice can be sensuous but isn’t sexually seductive.  Therefore the song doesn’t go anywhere.  It merely serves purpose as a toe-tapper. 

Happily, Immediately following this dip in quality we are treated to Randy Newman’s poignant and emotional ‘Snow’ which is a simple song sung with just piano accompaniment. It is achingly beautiful and the best this collection has to offer.   .

But, what could possibly be served up following that gem?  It would be difficult to offer anything as substantial. So, thorn doesn’t try.  Instead she covers Green Gartside’s middling pop trifle ‘Snow in The Sun’. This is another for those who prefer to just tap their toes rather than get into the mood or narrative of a track.

Unfortunately, now as we should be getting stuck into the meat of the album we seem to get the stuck into the fat in the middle. The traditional ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’ is obviously a plate filler.  Does anyone really need another version even if our host does do one of the better ones by conveying its unassuming message with conversational pace and tone that showcases it best?  There are no vocal band histrionics and the backing doesn’t intrude making it a lot preferable to many versions but I still find myself asking why? 

A second helping of Tracey Thorn’s own composing skill comes next ‘Tinsel and Lights’ is lifts this flabby underbelly of the album slightly.  It has one or two good lines and has a nice feel about it does still pale compared the better songs here.  At least it references Mary Margaret O’ Hara with the line ‘we played Miss America again and over and over again’ A often ignored album that would, perhaps, perfect for the committee to review at some point.

Up there with ‘Snow’ as the best song here is Joni Mitchell’s ‘River’.  I’ll be very interested to know what the other reviewers make of this track.  I’m perhaps, being overly precious about this song as it is a very personal song from the singer song-writers cathartic album ‘Blue’.  Much like ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’ but for very different reasons I can’t see any reason for covering this song.  Mitchell has always been an inward looking writer and no-one could hope to do a better version than the originators raw original and as this song is part of a song cycle explaining the singers life and career disappointments, predominantly her recent relationship failures, and with  ‘River’ itself detailing with a particular love and stupid loss and the fact that Mitchell is stuck, making a name for herself, in the Californian sunshine while pinning for the winters of her Canadian home, and for a lake she where she could just skate away from her problems.  So, how does this apply to Tracey Thorn?  How can she hope to interpret this song to any level of understanding?  No wonder the emotion of the song has dried. 

And, with that the festive feast of salient sentiment is nearly at its close. The penultimate track ‘Taking Down The Tree’ is a return to Tracey’s more recent electronica.  It is interesting track but spoilt for me by Green Garside’s vocals gate-crashing half way through. Thorne has one of the finest voices around and although Green’s vocals are good why bring him in especially if you are going to then add treatments to the voice which make it sound like he is gargling.  Still the track adds another bit of diversity to the album and does so without it jolting out of shape.   

Then, to finish off, comes coffee and another slice of electronic cake.  ‘Sister Winter’ is a Sufjan Stevens song that begins as a bitter warning but soon has us all singing its seasonal refrain. 

So, this is an album I didn’t really expect to like but have quite warmed to.  I think the fact that it isn’t a Christmas album as such more an album that features Christmas in life scenarios.  It could have been a collection of covers done in a Rumor style and aimed at the MOR market. It isn’t.  It is an album that I will play again – probably next year – and it could be an album that wins new listeners each year until in becomes a seasonal classic. 

77/100

Kev B

I am sure it is in ignorance but admit to have never heard of this artist nor to any of her music. But eh a Christmas album, what can go wrong !

I decided I wanted to be open and more importantly positive even before I listened to any of the tracks, however  I really struggled with the tone of the music. In the main  it was bland and at times on the dreary side and this is not how I want to remember Christmas. 

Anyway,  in my opinion the only two tracks which came out with any degree of merit and appeared to catch some of the spirit of Christmas were In The Cold Cold Night  and Sister Winter.

A short review but to be honest I was unimpressed with the lack of festive fare on offer.

30/100

Well that was the widest ranging bunch of scores we've had so far. I reckon it averages 58, making it the lowest scoring album so far as well. However if we do something statistically interesting and ignore the highest and lowest scores it comes in at 60, which is very nearly the same thus proving that statistical jiggery pokery is boring, dull and pretty pointless.

What will most definitely not be boring, dull or pointless will be next month's album choice, from Andy D, Royksopp's Melody A.M.

Have a great January!

Intelligence Records Bureau - Part 2

Yes - we are back. The great minds of the IRB have reconvened and compiled our thoughts regarding the latest Madness album...

Madness - Oui, Oui, Si, Si, Ja, Ja, Da, Da

Rich C
During my initial listens to this, the 10^th album of new material by Madness in 33 years, I allowed myself to have some nasty, evil thoughts. They were along the lines of “hey Madness…been doing this forever…they can just knock a bunch of new songs out without really trying…just plug the main ingredients into the Madness computer…and off they go…”

Clearly I hadn’t taken into account one of the golden rules of pop that states “Madness are great. End of”.

And the fact is, they are still great and more importantly they are still developing. The last album, The Liberty Of Norton Folgate, was more than just another Madness album. It was, by some distance, the best album they have ever made. Because what we maybe need to remind ourselves is that back in their pop heyday from 1979 to 1984, whilst they became the biggest selling British singles act of the 1980’s, they were a pretty average albums band. One Step Beyond, Absolutely, The Rise And Fall etc, whilst all containing some non-single delights, all contained some distinctly “filler” material.

Folgate, however, was a complete piece of work, dare I say a concept album, about a uniquely individual time and place in their beloved East London.  It was a quite perfectly executed piece of London pop, up there with All Mod Cons and the best of Ray Davies’ work.

Oui, Oui,  Si, Si, Ja, Ja , Da, Da therefore has a lot to live up to, and in the main it handles the pressure very well. Starting with My Girl 2, Mike Barson’s sequel to his classic errr 1, it is the N Boys at their infectious best. A top 5 hit single if we had like proper charts and that.

The quality pop music follows with Never Knew Your Name, my favourite track, with nostalgia the prevalent feeling both lyrically (about a lost opportunity in a discotheque, but with the same pulling at the heartstrings sadness of One Better Day) and musically (pinching the stop/start technique of Embarrassment along with part of its chord sequence).

In fact for the first part of the album, nostalgia is pretty much where it's at. It provides both an easy way in to the album and a mild case of annoyance that we might have heard this all before. The Latinesque La Luna, the raunchy Kitchen Floor (sounding a tad like an Amy Winehouse arrangement), the pure ska of Misery are all good but offer no surprises, lyrically or musically. Added to that there is one below par song in How Can I Tell You? which really is Madness-by-numbers and has some very lazy lyrics.

Madness raise their game, however, in the 2^nd half and thus don’t fall into the football metaphor trap of La Luna – “So many clear cut chances/I put over the bar”.

Leon sees them at their storytelling best about someone stuck in a routine that they are bored rigid with (a teacher/a pupil?), and musically is as claustrophobic as Cardiac Arrest was back in the day. Small World is a classic, a paean for their beloved London, seemingly written in the wake of the London riots. Death Of A Rude Boy follows up on this theme, mourning the demise of someone who “stood up for their rights”. Whether this is about South London knife gangs or something more symbolic about the loss of innocence doesn’t really matter as the band produce their musical highlight, paraphrasing The Specials’ Ghost Town to quite stunning effect.

Finishing off with the delightful hangover ballad Powder Blue and the bouncing, infectious tale of a survivor that is Black And Blue, it gives great pleasure to report that after all these years Madness still have what it takes.

75/100

Dave C

“Madness, madness ,  it must be madness”

The words from the song by their hero Prince Buster that gave the band their name, and probably the thoughts of Danny Boyle when deciding that the Olympic ceremony required a band from the 70s/80s that are typically British (despite the roots of their music) and have not simply endured, but are approaching national treasure status.

Yet back in the late 70s and early 80s you wouldn’t really have picked them from their contemporaries as the band most likely to achieve such a position. A non-too serious ska band whose singer has a limited musical and emotional range? How did that happen?

Well, it happened by them knowing what they do, what their range is and doing it damn well with wit, charm and chutzpah.  By the singer having a voice that suggests openness and sincerity (hence the numerous adverts you’ll be hearing him on in the coming weeks) and who (in common with Neil Tennant) can present the necessary emotions (wistful nostalgia, humour, ruefulness rather than anything extreme) with small changes of tone and inflection.  By them having several songwriters in the band, and by them crafting immaculate song arrangements.

In fact, the arrangements are so good that you don’t really notice them, there’s no showing off and no instruments fighting for dominance (I couldn’t possibly think of a favourite guitar, drum or keyboard bit from a Madness song). The sum of the song is greater than its parts.

“Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da” finds them in confident form. With the down tempo reggae of “Kitchen Floor” and “Death Of A Rude Boy”; the straight ahead ska of “So Alive” and “Black & Blue”, and mad dancehall of ‘Misery’, bluebeat rhythms remain at the heart of what they do but we also get the soul of My Girl 2 (which brought Big Den Hegarty and Darts to my mind), disco guitar and bass in “Never Knew Your Name” , up tempo rock/pop in Leon and Circus Freaks and a gentle late night slowly in Powder Blue.

Irrespective of rhythm the tracks are generally overlaid with pop sensibilities, a rich sound, and (something I’d never appreciated about the band) some tracks feature really strong support vocals. You also get the typical Madness ‘things not quite as you expect’ mucking around. Chris Smyth wrote “So Alive” after having a marriage proposal turned down, but it’s a jaunty appreciation of his “intended” rather than a self-indulgent wallow. And, of course on a Madness album, a song entitled Misery will be the most upbeat which on first hearing can be dismissed as a bit Chas n Dave. But on further listening you realise that the tightly circling horns and vocal phrasing of the verses are true to the dancehall style. And, despite the clumsiest of vocal lead ins, the chorus is a soaringly daft, but splendidly performed suggestion of ways to divert misery. It’s the Madness way.

It’s not all jolly mind, drummer Daniel Woodgate contributes the downbeat nostalgia of “Small World” and the honest assessment of his standing in a mismatched relationship in “Kitchen Floor”, both of which are slightly plodding but build subtly. He also wrote Leon detailing a teacher’s frustration at feeling boxed in which is much more up tempo and one of the strongest songs on the album. My actual favourite and most powerful song is the Lee Thompson/Mike Barson composition “Circus Freaks” which addresses the double edged nature of fame. It is nicely counterpointed by the gently tender and sentimental “Powder Blue” in which Suggs shares his feelings for his wife in the afterglow of a pop star party.

So overall, not an album to change your life our particularly gain them a whole new audience. But a bunch of well-conceived and constructed songs with sufficient shades of light and dark, and variety of styles to be worth a place in most people’s collection.

Music for pleasure.  

78/100

Ian F

Madness are the peoples band.  Britain loves Suggs and the boys.  They are a veritable Treasure: good boys with a slight edge; they wear nice suits, they don’t cause offence, and aren’t the kind of pop industry characters who embarrass us in tabloid scandals.    More importantly they have always… and that is ALWAYS … made good records.
 

The original Nutty Boys moon-stomped out of the late 70’s Ska revival but always kept to the poppier, happier, side  of what contemporaries like The Specials, the Selecter and others were doing.  They were a great pop band.  Beginning with ‘The Prince’ can anyone think of a band that has had a better, or longer run, of credible chart singles?  However, their long players didn’t always grab people’s attention in the same way.
  

That changed with their last album.  I hadn’t taken much notice of Madness since their reformation, through the Madstock Festivals, and their Our House musical but I investigated ‘The Liberty Of Norton Folgate’ after hearing a couple of tracks on Radio 2.  I have an aversion to groups reforming and the whole old guys trying to recapture their success and status but that album proved to be much, much, better than I expected.  From a personal point of view it by far the best Madness album. 
  

I tell you this because ‘The Liberty of Norton Folgate’ has definitely influenced the way I approached this release.  ‘Norton Folgate’ took nearly 4 years to put together.  It was released in 2009.  Therefore, presumably, ‘Oui  Oui, Si Si, Ja Ja, Da Da’  took approximately the same period of time to put together.  In comparison it is a disappointment. 

‘Norton Folgate’ was a brilliant collection of songs that worked as either stand alone, stand out, tracks or as an inter-related flowing whole.  It contained genuine classics tracks  such as ‘Forever Young’, ‘Out On The Town’ and the 10 minute title track.  The latest Madness record only works as a collection of separate pop tunes and it offers up, arguably only one classic.
 

I am perhaps being a little harsh.  It is certainly almost impossible not to enjoy the catchy, sing-along, tracks on ‘Oui Oui, Si Si, Ja Ja, Da Da’ but none of them hold your attention, or make you want to put the album on repeat.  These tracks are for the moment.  They work as an excellent party disc or as a happy intermission.
 

The nearest the latest Madness long player gets to the sort of kitchen sink pathos they’ve always been capable of, and achieved admirably on ‘TLONF’ with ‘On The Town’ and others, is with ‘Never knew Your Name’ which is a well-crafted songs which tells its melancholy story as the soundtrack builds from a piano, sax, and vocal start into a full on disco beat with orchestra and 80’s scratch funk guitar.  It’s a bit like Barry White covering Ian Dury and is the best four minutes on the album.
 

If only the other tracks were as good.  Unfortunately, whereas the previous record sounded like a new, mature Madness, this album sounds like the group trying to regain the vigour and happy exuberance of their former youthful selves while all the time filching bits from their favourite pop-stock masters most notably Motown (My Girl2), La Luna (Kirsty McColl), Squeeze  (Kitchen Floor) and… er… Chas and Dave (Misery).  This is no bad thing but when put together with easy, cheesy, rhymes instead of the usual Madness ability to deliver clever story telling lyrics leaves this as a good but ephemeral album.
   

Again, trying to be fair, I would have to say it would be difficult to dismiss any album that has Suggs singing on it.  His charismatic vocals are surely only behind Sinatra in terms of phrasing and certainly up their with Dean Martin and Mark E Smith for clever and distinctive cadence.  The former Graham McPherson can even make trite list lyrics such as ‘one chocolate in the box, a pair of mittens and some cotton socks’ sound interesting.
 

There are, obviously, therefore, many reasons to like this album not least that it is enjoyable to listen to and it will have many people tapping a foot, or singing-a-long, to many of its’ tracks.  I actually do think that none of these songs would be out of place, or fail to ignite, the crowd, if performed on the roof of Buckingham Palace next time Boris Town holds a national event but, personally, I’m still left disappointed.  I know I’m being harsh because I’m criticising this album on the basis that it doesn’t come close to their last exceptional effort.  I also know that a lot of people will love this album.  
However, this has been my review.

71/100

Tony D

It's a mouthful is the title, and it only means" yes" albeit in French, Spanish, German, and Russian. May be an assault on the European market for our very quintessentially English nutty boys.

I was looking forward to this album as I thoroughly enjoyed the last offering "The Liberty of Norton Folgate".

It's an album that reminds me of classic madness that we have all come to love. I'd be pretty surprised to find anyone that doesn't like at least one madness song. Anyway on to the album itself.

On first listening this sounds like a lovely jolly album, but after several plays and a better grasp of the lyrics there are some dark goings on in some of these songs. Maybe it's just my twisted mind, but let me explain.......

I have indeed had this album constantly on my iPod over the last few weeks and I have to say, it's good. From the opener "my girl 2" to the closer "my girl 2" (which is a slightly slower version of the opener) it keeps you gripped. There are some real quality lines too that make you go ahh yes and produce a wry smile and also provoke thought.

My Girl 2 gets the album rolling. It's an upbeat start that has more than a hint of Motown and a bit of Fine Young Cannibals (Good Thing) mixed into it. A fairly happy song about ones admiration for your lady.

Then track 2- Never knew your name.

Well, the story changes and a slightly down beat tune enters the fray. The story of a night of lost chances, regrets and what could have beens. We have all been there I think, wishing we had asked THAT question (phone number and can we meet again?). The line "stupid pride and idiot shame" probably sums it up well.

On the face of it "La Luna" Is a jolly little tune that breezes in and then out again. It captures the thoughts and memories of our narrator. There are things in his life that could have been achieved but weren't. The immortal 'if only' if ever I heard it.

Next, to my personal favourite.    "How can I tell you?". When I eventually figured out what the song was about (after 6 or so plays) I had a lump in my throat. The song still has that effect on me and takes me away to another place, bringing back so many memories.

At first I thought it was a love song about man and woman before realising in was about a child and dad. There are so many classic lines in this one you can relate to as a dad. A masterpiece lyrically and the upbeat tempo compliments such great one liners as....."you're gunna have to swim with the molecules" and "the time I stuck an ice cream in your face". A feel good song if ever I heard one.

"Kitchen floor"  seems to be about another failed relationship or at least one that isn't quite right. Typically quirky madness.

"misery" , mmm what a happy jolly sounding song about being miserable. Genius. It trundles along , maybe even skips  along. Good advice though from the nutty ones "don't keep misery as your company or you might as well be dead".

"Leon " a chap who obviously is an outcast who dare not come out and mingle with everyone. Things going on inside his head. Could he have been a paedophile? Or am I reading too much into this, maybe he was just a down trodden school caretaker.

Circus freaks is a jolly ditty which covers the living in public  life and the hiding away from the papers and public. The fact that everything has to be done in secret.

"So alive" kicks in with that jolly madness sound a breath of fresh air, happy words and positive outlook with an everlasting love. You want to sing and hum along.

"Small world"-A great bass back beat starts this grim tale. knock  me down with a left hook if this song is not about the London riots of last year.  "I've soon lost count of all the cars, that burn so bright outside the bars, deserted streets, and burning shells, familiar shops I know so well".  Our narrator is separated from his loved one.  Could be miles apart forever...... This really does conjure up visions of those August nights of riots.

"Death of a rude boy".  Love this song. The mood is a massive compliment to the lyrics. Obviously a big hard mate of the boys but can relate it to some of the old boys that follow hull city. I tell you what, though it has a feel of "ghost town" by the specials. Love the  cha cha cha cha bit too.

" powder blue"  I think tells of the story of madness and their demise and how they were in limbo for so many years a strange sound too.

"black and blue" a story of a relationship breakup where you get battered in the process of the split up.

Then back to "my girl 2" again.

Look, I know I've dissected every song on this album but I felt I could not review the album without doing this. Every song is a story in itself so could not be all bunched together. This is a classic madness album. Upbeat , jolly and sad. Musically it's great, it keeps you captivated all the way through. It's a foot tapper, a hummer and sing a long.

I love it.

90 out of 100

Andy D

Here’s a test for you: try to think about Madness without smiling.

You can’t, can you? No-one can.

That makes reviewing a Madness album somewhat tricky. Being pre-disposed towards liking someone makes judging them impartially close to impossible. So let’s not even bother trying. Everyone likes Madness, so why fight it?

Everyone should like this album, too. Mostly. My Girl 2 not only starts the album off effectively, you sense it’d be a great song to begin a live show with. That jaunty, catchy opening is pleasingly contrasted by the second song, and personal favourite on the album, Never Knew Your Name, a deceptively effective lament on the anxieties of teenaged coupling up – and especially memorable for the use of the archaic word “discotheque”, which very cleverly takes you back 25 years in an instant, the obvious point of a song designed to recall long-past embarrassments.

It goes downhill a little from there. How Can I Tell You has a simply awful opening line – “communication is a skill you must acquire”? Dear me. And “swimming with the molecules”…? Hm. A pretty lousy track.

 It improves from there, with a run of middling album tracks – though the lyrics continued to annoy. There’s a double negative in Kitchen Floor (grr), and why was it “THE wise man” in Misery? Who was the wise man? I wanted to know.

All is not lost. Circus Freaks was a much more convincing song just when you fear it’s going to be all filler. Death of a Rude Boy was the most interesting song on the album. I hated it at first but couldn’t explain why; after a few listens I liked it, but still couldn’t see why. There’s not much after that, though Black and Blue is a very Madnessy way to end.

And that feels about right. It’s obviously, recognisably the same Madness whose 1980s exploits we all adore. Is it a bad thing that they still sound similar to three decades ago? Not if you liked how that sounded, I guess. It sounded good, even great in patches. Just a pity about some of the lyrics.

72/100

Kev B

In a nostalgic way I was keen for the new album to be a hit because in the early eighties as a favourite band of mine, this was the ska band who knocked out hits for fun and I was fortunate to see them twice live at the Spa when they were at their peak. 

When they returned last year to the ice arena an ageing Suggs appeared to lack energy and in my opinion the concert was a bit of a let down

So would this be an album too far for Madness ?

I enjoyed track 1 (My Girl 2) more than  I enjoyed the first version and bounced  along in the car with the volume at a high setting.

Moving along to track 3 the sax and lyrics stood out in a well put together track. 

For their individuality Kitchen Floor, Misery and Leon described vocal  life telling situations as life is now for the middle aged band and these tracks gave me a wry smile.

The only track I did not enjoy was Death Of A Rude boy which in my opinion appeared to be stating that Ska is dead. 

Not quite true as this album to me proves that there is some life left from this infamous era. 

In my summing up I was pleasantly surprised by the variation of the tracks and although Madness tracks will always in general sound the same I thought there was a twist in each track that  kept me aroused and wanting to listen to the album over and over again.

80/100

Well…after entering that somewhat broad range of scores into the TTID compewter – we get an average score of 78 (in a rounded up sort of way).

Next month’s album selected by Dave C is…Tracey Thorn’s Tinsel And Lights. Reviews will be posted in the Christmas edition then. Have a great December.

Intelligence Records Bureau - Part 1

What the freakin' hell's this? I hear you ask. Well things have been a bit quiet on the old blogging front recently. Hence a burst of creative energy was required, which has manifested itself in the Intelligence Records Bureau. The IRB is a hand picked team of musical experts who have formed with the specific intention of listening to and reviewing one album per month (roughly). The reviews will be published on TTID along with scores on the doors and all manner of analysis (well actually I'll probably just average the totals or something). The IRB is governed by a very strict set of rules. We are just not sharing them with anyone else right now. Cliquey? You bet!

So here we go...

The xx - Coexist (2012)

Kev B

My first journey through the IRB has been a somewhat of a traumatic one for me. 

I tried to download the album but when I inputted xx into the search engine well I tell you

I've never seen so many pages of porn.

Anyway, after a week of trawling through the filth trying to find the goddam xx my computer crashed!

So Ian to the rescue and no, he did not remove the tit and fanny, but did provide the CD of Coexist.

  

So Monday morning driving to my workplace in Hessle, I played the CD however by the time I had

listened to 7 tracks  my want and wish was to drive straight past work and off the Humber Bridge.

Such was the dour and repetitive beat /drone /dross that I was listening to.

However, I have now listened to the album several times and been turned completely around and thoroughly enjoyed the majority of the tracks, in particular Angels, Reunion and Fiction.

I cannot decide the origin of the tune/beat however can imagine the steel drums been beaten

on the Caribbean islands.

70/100

Ian F

I used to hate the dominance of verse / chorus / verse songs.  Despite Dylan and the modernising minstrels of the mid sixties the archaic format was still almost obligatory up until only a couple of decades ago.  If you were a band who hoped to be heard on popular radio or even if your pretension was pitched leftfield of pure pop of it was still almost de-rigeur.  Dance culture and electronica changed much of that. 

I presume the electronic pop band The xx aspire to be a chart act.  They have the hooks.  They will appeal to the young, and the middle aged alike.  They will especially appeal to the couples in each of those groupings and even more so to the monied middling classes of each age stratum.  They should therefore be big in the same way that the EBTG audience grew large from behind Laura Ashley curtains.  

Unfortunately, although my better half seems to like Coexist I have a problem in that I miss any kind of song structure.  I hate to admit but I miss proper choruses.  The hooks heard here are memorable but merely refrains: “Being In Love With you as I am”; “My heart is beating in a different way” and “we used to be closer than this” are powerful, and poignant, and remain in the brain after just two or three plays but are lacking, as if unfinished.  Meanwhile the backing although it fits perfectly seems more like soundtrack music.  A soundtrack for a love affair?  Maybe.  I think that is what The xx hope but it is too manufactured.    I kept being drawn in but never captured.  I don’t know whether the vocalising protagonists are in a relationship or merely in a band together.  This album, despite lyrically exploring the traumas and travails of love doesn’t offer any clues.  They act out their songs well but are they electronica’s Burton and Taylor or merely Terry and June.

I imagine the three parts of The xx got together to make a certain kind of record.  An album of songs based on the traumas and travails of romance.  Yet, instead of getting together to express themselves musically and lyrically they made an album they thought would impress and sell and then went home to listen to Metallica. 

Still, I don’t dislike this album.  It infuriates as much by what it doesn’t do as much as it animates me by what it does.  During the records best bits there is something special going on.  Half way through ‘Re-Union’ there’s a most affecting moment.  A sudden change in tempo.  The last minute and a half has a the sort of muted, muffled, bass thud, your ears try to damp down to protect your mind after you stumble into a club after a long night of excess. The female vocals “Did I see you, see me, in a new light,” complete the murky, seedy, abstracted scene.  The end of that track syncs perfectly into ‘Sunset’. The mood stays the same. The throbbing, out of it, sound competes but then compliments the words “I saw you again it was like we’d never met”.  And “when I look into your eyes I see no surprise.”  These five minutes are certainly a highlights of this album.  The rest is good but by no means essential and I’m not totally convinced.  Perhaps, by the time of their third album when xx have learned a few more tricks, maybe have a little more time and encouragement to work further on their tracks, and write a couple of choruses – just to prove they can - , then I might believe.

67/100

Dave C

Please keep in mind that all reviews are essentially about the reviewer and how the item being reviewed chimes with their world view. So if anything written here makes you want to kill me, don’t worry, it just means you’ve got soul but, to clumsily extend the killer motif, you’re not a soldier. (Unless of course you are a member of her majesty’s armed forces, in which case, in addition to the desire, you probably possess the necessary skills and equipment to kill, and can therefore leave the worrying to me)

Anyway,  Co-exist by The xx

I wish I could like this album more than I do. The eschewing of extraneous instrumentation; linear sketch-like guitar lines subtly, sharply picked but guitars seldom strummed; little respect for conventional song structure; interesting use of sound textures and space; deep, deep bass and changes of rhythm; the gentle enveloping of velveteen voices. There is much to admire about their methods and the production skill, but its flaws are big ones. The old line about “What you don’t play being as important as what you do” is wrong. The space simply gives focus to what you do play and sing and the less you play and sing the better it needs to be. Whilst much of what is here is interesting, ultimately it lacks a real soul. Indeed I’ve never experienced a sound more lacking in soul than the echoy beat on Swept Away and would have gladly sacrificed a kidney for it to be replaced by someone hitting two bits of wood together or kicking a roller shutter door (anything that somehow related to the human condition would do). The (mostly) single word titles suggest that the lyrics will offer small snapshots and outline sketches about the changing status of the relationships, but  the words are disappointingly wan and uninspired, an example of speaking of emotions rather than truly expressing them. A bit like the trained actor from the animated series “Monkey Dust” Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim rely on the sound of their voices, but actually fail to imbue them with real emotional depth or sincerity. Their voices are the antithesis of those like Bill Callahan, Lou Reed and Tom Waites. Perhaps they just haven’t lived enough yet or perhaps I’m too old, but it to me it remains an attractive, unusual bud unbloomed.

63/100

Rich C

Well I will start by saying I feel like I have lived and breathed this album over the last few weeks. I have played it lots, both as background listening while working, driving, doing other stuff etc and also a couple of serious "sit down and really concentrate" sessions.

This is kinda unusual for me as I always have a backlog of music to get through and hence tend to play things once and then move on, but this little album has really got under my skin, and deflected me from the pile of vinyl, CDs, downloads etc that are looking at me pleadingly.

When I first heard of the xx I was somewhat put off by the comparisons with some of the quiet post punk era stuff that lots of the reviews mentioned, in particular the Young Marble Giants references, a band I was a huge fan of back in the early 80s. I have mentioned before on this blog the problem I sometimes have with modern bands who seem to really "feel the weight" of the history of popular music that has gone before, and can't shake off their oh too obvious influences. I expected the xx to follow that trend and thus I ignored their first album completely.

I did, however, hear a track or 2 from this their latest release, while listening to Jo Wiley in the car about a month ago. And found myself intrigued. Hence why I chose it for the IRB album.

What I have found over the last few weeks is that it is an album that really needs to be played loud, and listened to with complete concentration. In doing that, I found I got immersed in the atmospherics, the pulse of the bass and drum machine, the haunting vocals, and those lyrics that implant themselves in your head. The occasions when I played it more as background listening, I found the album was over before I had barely noticed it, with the songs all blurring into a mush of sameness. 

"My heart is beating in a different way", " do you still believe in you and me?" - these are lyrics with a depth of emotion that can have a deep effect on the listener if you allow it to. But you do need to give it that time and effort or it can seem somewhat ephemeral and not a little annoying in its sameness of atmosphere throughout. In short, play it twice over the course of a weekend with the volume up and the head thinking of nothing else. And it will get to you.

So...I have just written a review explaining how to listen to Coexist without mentioning much about the music at all. I guess the other reviews may well do more of that. What I will say is it is clearly written and performed by some musicians who have a lot of original ideas about creating modern music about relationships, and have the technical capability to put it across. In that sense they are doing what the Young Marble Giants did, but in their own way. Well done to them.

70/100

Tony D

I've listened to the album 6 or 7 times now. Twice at the gym, once whilst on a bike ride,  once whilst out walking and at least 2 or 3 times other than that.

Well the one thing I can say is,  it's not a foot tapper!

From the opener "Angels" through to "our song" that closed this dreamy assault on my eardrums, songs seemed to want to get going at times (and god I was willing them to!) but never did. The start of "Fiction" reminded me of the siouxie and the banshees song "happy house". I had to play the start over and over to finally get what it was that it reminded me of. Then low and behold on track 4,  ("Try")  I was transported back to Adam and the Ants! 

"Ants invasion"  was the song in question from "kings of the wild frontier" album. A couple more pretty  nondescript songs followed. Track 7 "missing" probably does exactly that! It does remind me however of the Frankie goes to Hollywood song "power of love" in places.  The album finished in a whimper with "our song".

For me this was very hard work. I wanted to enjoy but found that I wasn't moved. It's an album that I probably won't listen to again unless under duress.

30/100

Andy D

The first time I realised I liked this album is when I was listening to something else. Walking home from licenced premises, I put my ipod on shuffle and trudged onwards. Halfway through the journey, Fiction came on, and I smiled to myself with the oddly happy sensation you hear the beginning of a song you know you’re going to enjoy listening to.

I wasn’t so sure at first. It was obviously clever. Its meticulous minimalism and discordancy were skilful, and the echoey way the duets sounded as they were sung by two people urgently seeking one another at opposite ends of a large, dark room were compelling. But does that make it any good?

Eventually yes, when I peered through the soundscape towards the lyrics: “the end comes to soon; like dreams of angels” in the lovelorn lamenting of Angels, and “it felt like you really knew me; now it feels like you see through me” in Sunset’s slightly embittered finale. My favourite was Chained’s “Did I hold you too tight? Did I not let enough light in?”

It wasn’t perfect. The steel drum sound of Reunion jarred, and just occasionally you felt it was being a little too clever for its own good. I particularly didn’t like Our Song, which ended the album disappointingly. However it stuck to its guns. Halfway through I was wondering when a change of speed or direction may appear – in fact, I probably hoped for one, to break it up a little. That it didn’t yield to that temptation was typical of an album that always seemed to know exactly what it wanted to do.

75/100

Well - all that gives The xx Coexist an average score of 62.5. 

Next month's album, chosen by Kev B, is the new Madness album Oui, Oui, Si, Si, Ja, Ja, Da, Da. Which is released on 29th October. Looking forward to it.