Sunday 18 November 2007

Blonde Redhead - Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons

No track on this trio's fifth album follows, directly or logically, the shape or style of the track preceding it. And that's ok, as Blonde Redhead's modus operandi is to produce a head-spinning musical melange, amassed from a multiplicity of sources, that will leave you and your ears dazed but happy.

True to form, the band launches into an ethereal, Stereolab-influenced "In Particular" after the opening mini-track's sonic blast. There is an initial kitchen-sink, frenetic similarity between Blonde Redhead and Solex, though the former is the more verbal, softer of the two. This similarity is shattered, however, by "Loved Despite of Great Faults," a measured, modest ballad with just a touch of Brian Wilson's wistfulness to its late-Beatles-meet-the-Kinks patina. Throughout it all, Kazu Makino and Amedeo Pace trade off sweet and captivating vocals, breathing life into subtly compelling lyrics.

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