Agony Shorthand
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Thursday, February 16, 2006
LOVE IS ALL : "NINE TIMES THAT SAME SONG" CD......
A few weeks back I was trumpeting this Swedish pop group's wares as one of the more exciting sounds of 2005 I'd come across, with the full expectation - culled from hearing at least 5-6 downloaded 45 & EP tracks of theirs, including some bombs -- that their forthcoming CD might be mediocre. Mediocre it is, though that can be partially chalked up to how magnificent the song "Make Out Fall Out Make Up" is by comparison -- seriously one of the most jarringly great loud pop songs in a decade, & one that probably negates some of the pablum served up here. (If you're keeping track, it's track #6 on this 10-song, blink-and-you-missed "album"). Now let's establish that if you regularly come to this site to read about FAUST, SPK and the SHIT DOGS and hate anything remotely mersh, you're gonna hate this, because mersh pop (of a very brassy, busy, weirdly-produced indie sort) it most definitely is. What I dig about LOVE IS ALL for the most part, though, is how everything is slathered in screaming sheets of echo and delay, so even the annyoing female vocals rocket off walls & bang around your head like a spring-loaded tin cup. You can tell that if you cast a whole bunch of prejudices and a bit of your refined taste to the side, you'd be dancing your friggin' ass off at a Love Is All live gig. I wish this one had more doozies like "Make Out" or their earlier "Motorboat" to get me hopping, but I only count "Busy Doing Nothing" and "Spinning & Scratching" plopped among the wet noodle ballads & throwaway shouters as numbers that will stand the test of time (e.g. I'll want to listen to them next year). Suffice to say that while this is simply a band I'll only scour the download sites for from here on, I'll also humbly still pay real cash money to attend one of their US shows later this year. I'm still a sucker for a hook, baby.
A few weeks back I was trumpeting this Swedish pop group's wares as one of the more exciting sounds of 2005 I'd come across, with the full expectation - culled from hearing at least 5-6 downloaded 45 & EP tracks of theirs, including some bombs -- that their forthcoming CD might be mediocre. Mediocre it is, though that can be partially chalked up to how magnificent the song "Make Out Fall Out Make Up" is by comparison -- seriously one of the most jarringly great loud pop songs in a decade, & one that probably negates some of the pablum served up here. (If you're keeping track, it's track #6 on this 10-song, blink-and-you-missed "album"). Now let's establish that if you regularly come to this site to read about FAUST, SPK and the SHIT DOGS and hate anything remotely mersh, you're gonna hate this, because mersh pop (of a very brassy, busy, weirdly-produced indie sort) it most definitely is. What I dig about LOVE IS ALL for the most part, though, is how everything is slathered in screaming sheets of echo and delay, so even the annyoing female vocals rocket off walls & bang around your head like a spring-loaded tin cup. You can tell that if you cast a whole bunch of prejudices and a bit of your refined taste to the side, you'd be dancing your friggin' ass off at a Love Is All live gig. I wish this one had more doozies like "Make Out" or their earlier "Motorboat" to get me hopping, but I only count "Busy Doing Nothing" and "Spinning & Scratching" plopped among the wet noodle ballads & throwaway shouters as numbers that will stand the test of time (e.g. I'll want to listen to them next year). Suffice to say that while this is simply a band I'll only scour the download sites for from here on, I'll also humbly still pay real cash money to attend one of their US shows later this year. I'm still a sucker for a hook, baby.