* in stock
CD: TV6090-2
RELEASED: 2007
LABEL: TVT
01. Race to the City
02. Break
03. A Strange Education
04. Human
05. Chase
06. Rise & Fall
07. Sunday Sun
08. Keep Forgetting
09. Ready Now
10. Maybe Someday
11. Alright
12. Asleep At The Wheel
Popular music perpetuates itself in cycles; each new decade brings with it a defining sound that inconspicuously borrows from previous decades, and regurgitates to the listening public's delight. This decade, the 80s have shown up fashionably late, in the form of Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, The Killers, and numerous other groove infected rock bands plucked from the benign tumor of Morrissey and Depeche Mode fans that decided to pick up guitars instead of going to college. The Cinematics' debut album, A Strange Education, is no exception. Hyper-timed disco beats, swelling keyboards, delayed guitars, pulsing bass and dramatic vocals weave together 13 tracks; unpausable, unskippable, and altogether unstoppable. It's the sort of album that at first seems only to recall other bands in a similar vein, a perception that the artist has gone and simply jumped on a yet another bandwagon. But it's only about three songs into A Strange Education on the title track that one realizes The Cinematics are currently engaged in a hard sprint to the front of the pack, ready to grab hold and steer that bandwagon toward something else, possibly something better. Listen closely; The Cinematics are carefully carving a genre out of mere trends. A Strange Education, if you can believe it, matches sincere introspection with flamboyant rock performances. Lyrically heavy, yet consistently catchy, nearly every track is danceable. From the opening "Race to the City" to the upbeat cover of Beck's otherwise somber "Sunday Song", the record embraces the listener in a dance-hall bear hug. An audacious act at first glance, The Cinematics manage to squeeze every hook dry without sounding desperate, making the listener believe that everything is happening here in a beautiful accident.
Similar Artists:
The Stills, Editors, Elefant, Film School, Cut City, Radio4
|