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They sing! Finally! Fucking right! For the daunting follow up album, the girls-only troupe Electrelane, end the silence of their instrumental first album by featuring vocals on nearly every track of their sophomore venture. And while the first album was warm with blushingly delicate pop-chamber arrangements, this album and this track comes throwing punches from the outset. From the loud celebration of The Slits we slide into the cool intimacy of another girl group, though they wonder nothing of music but use the medium to wonder about themselves. Much whimsy has drained from the four, it's gone back to grassy plains, leaving them and the listener for the better. You can only be cradled for so long. At parts they can sound a dead-on female Joy Division (that only took 25 years) and at others they can sound just like your recent ex, the first time that you speak again, without tenderness or tie. And that's in this song alone. It's Verity Susman's vocals and their recently discovered legs that give this song so much. Her voice is still new and trying to find its footing, attempting many stances to see which one is best. A growth that is fascinating to watch, the missteps as enthralling as the successes, and wonder how it turns out. That stance is not on this album. The next Electrelane outing is guaranteed to see the group and the vocals at full maturity and thrust. In the meantime there are these glimmering snapshots from a band's adolescence.

 

side A song 1 go to side A song 3
“In the Beginning there was Rhythm" - The Slits "On Parade" - Electrelane "Staring at the Sun" - TV on the Radio "Transit" -  Fennesz (w/ David Sylvian) "Fabulous Muscle" -  Xiu Xiu "Oh How the Boat Drifts" and  "Small Deaths are the Saddest" -  Mum "Less Than You Think" - Wilco
"Origin and Theory of the Tape Cut-Ups" - William S. Burroughs "Tooken Back" - Ghostface Killah (w/ Jackie-O) "Dry Your Eyes" - The Streets Break in the Road" - Betty Harris "Sizuku Ring Neng" - 00I00 "Hot on the Heels of Love" - Throbbing Gristle "Structure Tone" - Beans "I Gotta Go" -  James Carr "A Soldier
 
 
 
 


comments: mix tape
subject: mix tapes are fun
date: 08.23.2004
name: zo
comment:
long notes/sounds of ambience/silence dont necessarily add up to the thematic idea of endless beginless.. but whatever, as much as that doesnt make sense, i think Throbbing Gristle's track should be changed to "Hamburger Lady' and Xiu Xiu's track should be changed from the corny 'fabulous muscles' to the outstanding/vibrant/so-much-muscle-that-its-actually-off-the-ep track "jennifer lopez." oh well, that is just my humble opinion. yeah, that and dry your eyes makes me warm.