- Artists:
- Isobel Campbell »
- Label:
- V2 »
Ooh – like, ethereal, meandering vocals over finger-picked guitar and very soft, low-pitched strings! With slight hints of the mediaeval in the harmonies! Can my heart take the pace?
Alas: I fear it can.
I sometimes wonder whether there’s something I’m just missing with music like this. Whether some lack of subtlety in my soul or my general compulsion to go for the burn in all aspects of my life is blinding me to the gentle, soothing appeal which could await me in former Belle and Sebastian member Isobel Campbell’s solo guise and its musical kindred – if only I could tap in to it. The fact that I do, occasionally, come across a soft-spoken solo act which actually does speak to me plays on this vague feeling that I’m somehow missing something worth appreciation.
Most of the time, however, I figure the last thing I need in my life is an yen for simplistic, glorified lullabies; and that if that’s the price I’d pay for refinement I’m better off crude.
Sometimes, an acoustic act – or some other kind of stripped-down solo performer – will include in their act a depth of emotion, an instrumental complexity, a compulsion to fuck with the genre or a level of raw beauty which will drag me outside the usual boundaries of my musical appreciation and inspire me to fall unexpectedly in love. Normally, however, acoustic acts just strike me as being so stuck on the raw bones of music that they forget to add the Quality Behind The Notes which transcends music from something you can take at GCSE* to a supernaturally moving art form.
And in the case of Ms Campbell, I just ain’t getting transcendence.
*I actually have an A in Music GCSE, so I’m not being elitist or bitter and I know whereof I speak.
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Share on FacebookI also have an A
in music GCSE! Woo!
Strange review..
It barely even discusses the album?
I have a C
I lose!
i have an A at GCSE AND an A at A-Level
and i think you're an eejit
I have an A
in Religious Education. That's bloody catholic schools for you!
i would have to disagree
i think this is an excellent review, and that it covers the album quite well.
each to their own, i suppose...
um
you could sum this review up in the words 'not transcendant'. Some specifics would be nice for those who do actually like soft spoken accoustic acts. Instead i know a lot more about the reviewer than i do about the reviewee. That is what blogs are for, not reviews. As a little blog entry its quite nice though.
Nothing wrong with blurring the boundaries
blogs/reviews/life/music/genres/gender/rules
this is an appalling review
as a discussion of the genre fine, but it tells me nothing at all about how good this record actually is.
just pointless, if you know that this type of music always leaves you cold then don't review it. or if you do at least REVIEW it...
GAH
But..
For those not in the know, check out Ballad of The Broken Seas with Mark Lanegan, modern classic.
that's kinda my point
i LOVE that album. so really i want to know if this is as good. or better. or worse. not if the reviewer has a chip on her shoulder about the genre.
this is the first time a review here has really annoyed me
Grades, grades
I got an A in something once, but you hardly need an education to know that w/o Murdoch, the world never would have been troubled by the talentless mewling of Isobel Campbell. Blech.
Wouldn't agree with that...
For me, Ballad of the Broken Seas illustrates perfectly what the review above was saying. Campbell's voice and music were too lightweight to carry any kind of soul, when Mark Lanegan was shoehorned into the mix. Especially when held up against the duets with PJ Harvey on Bubblegum which are superb. I mean, he got made to sing in a key completely unsuited to him in some of the songs on Broken Seas. He's renowned for having one of the best badassmuthafucka voices in rock, and was made to sound limp-wristed.
But then, I really just like it when he makes mean fuzzy rock, as in Bubblegum and the QOTSA. And got Broken Seas for the Lanegan side, not the Campbell. So I should really just have stuck Bubblegum on again. But then its good to broaden horizons. Hmm.
And Dust by the Screaming Trees is still in my all-time top five albums.
You need to be sacked!
2 lines about the album, 3 paragraphs about your self?
Well done. No really. Well done!
it does have to be said
that this review is pretty bad.
I just wasted a minute of my life reading it.
I'm not such a fan of this review
basically, I agree with rapscalion, I've learned nothing about this album
this review can apply
to every solo Isobel Campbell release.
Will still buy the new one expecting one or two magical moments...
BAD REVIEW
This is one of the most shocking reviews I've read on here over the last five years. The task of Holliy was to review the album, not talk about her preferences towards music. Also, an A at GCSE music? Really? You can be tone deaf to achieve an A in this subject at GCSE. Well done.
In Photos: Royksopp @ Shepherds Bush Empire, London
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