Eliot was wrong, I think it’s March that is the cruellest month. Had they released the album a couple of days later, then I wouldn’t question a great poet. Actually, you’re better off reading a couple lines of modern verse, as it’s heavily anchored in rhythm, which I can’t say about the Guillemots’ new album, Red.
Most of it is heresy, and this isn’t about selling out. Pop is good, but not if the first chords of a choice song remind me of a certain Mika. There’s pop, and there’s pop-that-back-where-it-came-from. What else is there to be found? Who knows, my head’s spinning from this over-produced thing. Fluctuating wildly, looking for a Top 40 slot, with soul stripped of its soul, electronica that’s half-baked and clumsy. This is madness, and not the kind of musical madness that dislocates and enhances your inner world- actually I want to either hide from fear or pull a Van Gogh. Some remnants of the jazzy experimentations are there, but in quite unsatisfying shape, and reverting to more formulaic sounds.
Makes you shed a tear for the past glory of those wondrous EPs, “From The Cliffs” and “Of The Night”. Alright folks, we do have a couple of good songs on this big red yarn of heterogenous. But here I am, wondering, are they good only because the rest is quite awful? Or maybe they just remind me of what they used to be. Call me a reactionary.
Compare and contrast,
—
