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Product Description
File : THE HORRORS. Debut 2011 album from frontman Faris Badwan's side project! Romantic symphonies 'n' glassy girl-group pop, in collaboration with opera soprano Rachel Zeffira. For fans of Phil Spector and Angelo Badalamenti.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Faris Badwan has had his fingers in lots of different musical
pies. Cat's Eyes is his latest; a collaboration with singer
Rachel Zaffira and it's a magnificently moody piece of work.
Mr Badwan has dipped into the sound palette of Sixties girl bands
and come back with a highly engaging collection of ten tracks
which sucessfully resurrects some of the magic of that era.
Ms Zaffira's whistful voice is absolutely ideal for the job.
Her breathy tone recalls the young Francoise Hardy (whose 1967
album 'Ma Jeunesse Fout Le Camp' came especially to mind).
Mr Baldwin is the beast to Ms Zaffira's beauty. He slips and
slides and snarls like the very best (worst?) kind of lounge
lizard. Listen to his marvelously wayward performance on 'Face
In The Crowd'. He is a creature of the night. No ifs or buts!
There are some very pretty tunes here too. The string arrangements
on the truly lovely 'I'm Not Stupid' and the small but perfectly
formed 'Not A Friend' are beautifully judged and sensitively frame
Ms Zaffira's fragile delivery. The latter's lilting bossa nova beat and
dreamy melody proves to be one of the album's understated highlights.
Only two of the songs weigh-in at over three minutes and the
album slips by in the blink of an eye but despite its diminutive
stature it manages nonetheless to punch way above its weight.
'Sooner Or Later' is the album's real curiosity. A spectacularly sombre
dirge which has Mr Badwan intoning darkly like the very devil himself!
(Listen carefully and you will hear him smashing two thigh bones
together deep down in the mix for added nightmarish texture ... Brrrr!)
However, on the final tiny composition 'I Knew It Was Over' he also
shows a capacity for tenderness. It is a strangely moving performance.
Ms Zaffira creates a chorus of angels and fluffy clouds around him to
bring the album to a gentle and markedly un-demonic conclusion.
'Cat's Eyes' is a worthy work of wildly inventive musical imagination.
Highly Recommended.
pies. Cat's Eyes is his latest; a collaboration with singer
Rachel Zaffira and it's a magnificently moody piece of work.
Mr Badwan has dipped into the sound palette of Sixties girl bands
and come back with a highly engaging collection of ten tracks
which sucessfully resurrects some of the magic of that era.
Ms Zaffira's whistful voice is absolutely ideal for the job.
Her breathy tone recalls the young Francoise Hardy (whose 1967
album 'Ma Jeunesse Fout Le Camp' came especially to mind).
Mr Baldwin is the beast to Ms Zaffira's beauty. He slips and
slides and snarls like the very best (worst?) kind of lounge
lizard. Listen to his marvelously wayward performance on 'Face
In The Crowd'. He is a creature of the night. No ifs or buts!
There are some very pretty tunes here too. The string arrangements
on the truly lovely 'I'm Not Stupid' and the small but perfectly
formed 'Not A Friend' are beautifully judged and sensitively frame
Ms Zaffira's fragile delivery. The latter's lilting bossa nova beat and
dreamy melody proves to be one of the album's understated highlights.
Only two of the songs weigh-in at over three minutes and the
album slips by in the blink of an eye but despite its diminutive
stature it manages nonetheless to punch way above its weight.
'Sooner Or Later' is the album's real curiosity. A spectacularly sombre
dirge which has Mr Badwan intoning darkly like the very devil himself!
(Listen carefully and you will hear him smashing two thigh bones
together deep down in the mix for added nightmarish texture ... Brrrr!)
However, on the final tiny composition 'I Knew It Was Over' he also
shows a capacity for tenderness. It is a strangely moving performance.
Ms Zaffira creates a chorus of angels and fluffy clouds around him to
bring the album to a gentle and markedly un-demonic conclusion.
'Cat's Eyes' is a worthy work of wildly inventive musical imagination.
Highly Recommended.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
A great and unlikely collaboration which works incredibly well. Simple songs on the whole, but with a great dark aptmospheric edge which makes the songs very 60's but new wave also. I couldn't recommend this album more!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Faris Baldwin (of Horrors Fame) has said of this side project 'I've always wanted to do a girl group somehow.' Without hearing this it may seem like an odd sentiment. However, this side project with Rachel Zeffira is totally in tune with a sixties girl groups style given a slightly modern and indie uplift. From the subject matter, yes they are all love songs, to the approach, vocals and instruments this is a real homage to what Baldwin wanted to create. It has some catchy hooks as well, Face In The Crowd is one of the tracks where Baldwin's the main vocal. It has a a bass line that is akin to A Girl Like You by Edwyn Collins. It has a better chorus with Zeffira's voice lingering long after the last note dies.
Zeffira's voice is very much at home with the lyrics and leaves the listener feeling for her, even though she could be singing about a love found rather than one lost. Most of the time she isn't though. Most of the time its just her singing as well although the production and vocals really does give the feel of a girl band. Like a lot of the sixties girl bands there are strings and horns to back up the vocals and whilst they are given a modern feel they really work well. Not every track does though and Sooner or Later stands out as a real turkey here. Its a dirge with Baldwin leading and it does bring home how much this whole piece works when Zeffira's is at the forefront. She is a opera singer by training and on Over You she might not hit the ranges of an opera singer she does deliver a performance that shows her vocal talents. The final track, I knew it was over, is quite beautiful and works with Zeffira providing church choral backing to Baldwin in a performance that you may well hear in drama's at the key point of a characters story arc. It is moving and lovely.
This album really does work as a homage to sixties girl groups and as an album by itself. The Horrors have won many friends over the past two years. However, Zeffira deserves equal recognition on this evidence. Lets hope she gets it and this gets heard.
Zeffira's voice is very much at home with the lyrics and leaves the listener feeling for her, even though she could be singing about a love found rather than one lost. Most of the time she isn't though. Most of the time its just her singing as well although the production and vocals really does give the feel of a girl band. Like a lot of the sixties girl bands there are strings and horns to back up the vocals and whilst they are given a modern feel they really work well. Not every track does though and Sooner or Later stands out as a real turkey here. Its a dirge with Baldwin leading and it does bring home how much this whole piece works when Zeffira's is at the forefront. She is a opera singer by training and on Over You she might not hit the ranges of an opera singer she does deliver a performance that shows her vocal talents. The final track, I knew it was over, is quite beautiful and works with Zeffira providing church choral backing to Baldwin in a performance that you may well hear in drama's at the key point of a characters story arc. It is moving and lovely.
This album really does work as a homage to sixties girl groups and as an album by itself. The Horrors have won many friends over the past two years. However, Zeffira deserves equal recognition on this evidence. Lets hope she gets it and this gets heard.
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