All items tagged "album"

Music

Mirror Mirror

The Society of the Advancement of Inflammatory Consciousness (Cochon)

Concept albums are difficult beasts. The fictional society portrayed from various perspectives in this debut is imaginative and colourful, but seems contrived and lacking in any real point. The songs themselves, however, are engaging enough to render the concept redundant...Admittedly, the extroverted nature of most of the lyrical material here is often just annoying, while, in terms of harmony, the album is quite adventurous, but some of its uses of chromaticism come across as psychedelic cliché. It is the record's manipulation of timbre that proves most varied and exciting. A playful, diverse attitude to sounds is evident, the results of which often resemble Flaming Lips or Mercury Rev. Quirky modulation effects that are very difficult to pull off tastefully prove surprisingly effective, as on the backing vocals of "New Horizons' and the lead electric guitar in "Eugene'. There are also very organ-like synth patches, and equally organ-like organs, and some excellent ambient electronic passages such as in "Lock Up Your Sons' or the subtle opening of "My Talisman'. Now and again, the idiosyncratic use of strange reverbs and particularly fuzzy… Continue reading...