Like her debut, Gourmandises, all of the songs on this sophomore effort were written and produced by Mylène Farmer and longtime collaborator, Laurent Boutonnat.
Patchy at times, magnificent at others, a sonic novel about broken lives/shattered dreams/disillusionment/history. Any one of us could be the characters.
This full-length and its four-track companion (also entitled Phoenix) are wonderful pieces of psychedelic perfection: Loud, brutal, drug-crazed, and expansive.
More radio-friendly post-punkers discovering shoegazer, trip-hop, and Third Eye Blind. Bop-able, to attract females, but predictable from start to finish.
Pele have given up their free-form jazz/math indie jams for a “rockier” sound. Still upbeat and youthful, but no longer patiently stacking layers of secrets.
Comparable to Thursday, or a harder Saves the Day, Spitalfield uses soft drums with fluctuating guitar strums that tease your ears, and then pound them.
If Jason Falkner was a 20-year-old kid obsessed with ’60s pop, but couldn’t resist playing into the whole emo aesthetics, he’d be Dolour (aka Shane Tutmarc).