5つ星のうち5.0The ONLY worthwhile band of the 00s, please buy every album NOW!!
2015年5月30日にアメリカ合衆国でレビュー済み
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This is brilliant pop music. What does it sound like? I detest the term "dream pop". I don't know what it means, particularly since it gets applied to a band like The Dream Academy, who sound very little like this band. I think the best starting point might be late Joy Division/early New Order with sprinkles of My Bloody Valentine and even a pinch of Jesus and Mary Chain. There is always a catchy melody or phrase, occasionally buried in distortion, but typically front and center. I'm not a fan of the programmed/electronic drums, but I love this music nonetheless - it somehow works.
Lyrically, the point of view (NOT the vocal technique) is a slightly more subtle Morrissey, but equally capable of venom and indeed humor at times (see "The Worst Taste In Music" and "I Wanted You To Feel the Same"). Although hardly profound, they consistently mine the world of failed/failing/complex relationships, but the music never comes off as depressing so much as contemplative and introspective. One unique aspect of the lyrics is that they provide a refreshingly new take on the silly love song as seen through the perspective of homosexuality. It's irrelevant if that's not your sort of thing - almost every song works from a hetero bias as well, but I find them more interesting in the context intended by the artists.
My first taste of this band was "Heaven's On Fire" - arguably the greatest song of the decade (either the 00s or the 10s, maybe both) - from the third album "Clinging To a Scheme". The mere thought of someone not liking that song is literally inconceivable - from the caustic lambasting of the music industry right down to the great intro quote by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. I happen to love almost every song they've ever written, and the few I don't love are still quite good. I sampled songs from all their albums, then promptly bought all three in one fell swoop. Please do yourself a favor and do the same, assuming you enjoy the snippets you hear - you will not be disappointed.
As an extremely jaded music fan enjoying every era of popular music, I find it extremely difficult to get excited by any new song, much less an entire album. These albums blew me away. Which one is best? Which one to buy first? I don't know - the first two "Lesser Matters" and "Pet Grief" cover similar ground. "Clinging To a Scheme", true to it's name, clings to that formula but adds a few new twists, including some white boy reggae. Please just buy them all. And "Passive Aggressive" too, a two disc collection of singles and B sides, but with very little redundancy - none of the B sides and even a few of the A sides are not on the first three albums.
Please forgive me - this identical review is copied and pasted onto each of their albums, but that is only because each one warrants 5 stars and they all seem to be essential elements of a greater whole. Rather than split hairs about how they differ, I prefer to stress how great this band is, in general, so that no matter which album readers click on, they will get the same introduction to the music.