A curiously Garbage-like project, with producers Nigel Godrich (most famously working with Radiohead) and Joey Waronker (most famously working with Beck) fronting their band with an unrelated, undertalented female singer to make slightly soulless, reasonably compelling, electronic-tinged rock.
If you're any kind of fan of recent Radiohead this will sound familiar, and the album is mostly interesting as a referendum on Godrich's role in that band's recent sound. Similar buzzy, 5 on a flat tire bass and unknown square wave poltergeists rule the songs, and Waronker's clipped, precise beats even evoke King of Limbs-era post-post-punk skitter.
The problem is Laura Bettinson's singing, which simply don't have the Yorkeian personality to stand up to the production, landing somewhere between Broadcast* and Dirty Projectors on the mewling female inflection scale, providing vocals but little voice. Consider Easier, where she swoops the titular word up an octave or so as the main hook: the result is so baldly just a note, there's nothing to the delivery that constitutes performance as a frontwoman.
Interesting, but rarely compelling; for my money I'd rather just wait for whatever Nigel and the Radiohead boys cook up next 3/5
* good call, Dusted
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment