Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just dance me in, 24 Nov 2005
Sons and Daughters have performed with some pretty big names in indie rock, with Decemberists, the Fiery Furnaces and fellow Scots Franz Ferdinand. But aside from sharing stages, these bands don't really have anything much in common.
In fact, Sons and Daughters don't really sound like, well, any other rock band that's around at the moment. Instead they try something unique: combining the rhythms of punk and folk, resulting in the a gloriously dark debut album, "Repulsion Box."
It opens with a trashy drum solo, which is quickly joined by some sputtering bass and razor-sharp electric guitar. "Then I cannot feel my body and I'm floating then I'm drowned/And nothing I have taken keeps it down /It's a riiiide," Adele Bethel rapid-fires, sounding like an ingenue who's gotten mean after downing a few whiskeys.
And once the final explosive chords of "Medicine" have faded away, the album doesn't slow down. Okay, it slows down for exactly one song, a slow-burning rocker, before exploding into slow-burning rock, dancerock that puts trendier competitors to shame, and swirling punk set to earthy traditional rhythms. Result: both ominous and entertaining.
Okay, it's a pretty short album, clocking in at only about half an hour. I do wish they had tacked on a few more songs -- but then again, better a short good album than a lesser, longer one. And whatever it lacks in length, "Repulsion Box" makes up for in punch and energy. There's a purity to their music; no jumping onto trends or bandwagons, no filler songs.
Anyone who has heard Celtic folk will recognize the jiggy rhythms that make you want to dance, with handclaps, whistling and references to banshees. But this is not cheery music, with its sparsely-worded lyrics about broken love affairs and a woman drowned in the tub. It's ominous and rough, and it makes you feel that way even as you tap your feet to it.
This is also one of those bands that harmonizes male and female vocals. Bethel is paired with guitarist Scott Paterson, who usually does backing harmony. But occasionally bursts out with a brogued croon (or a snarl), "Monogamy to you it seems is just black and blue/All the best psychotic lovers ain't got nothing on you!" Yep, their brogues are intact, for people who like the accents untouched.
"Repulsion Box" is the ideal fusion of punk hellraising and traditional catchiness, resulting in dark, intense music that doesn't let up for a second. Unique and exceptional
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful, fresh and it makes you want to dance!, 15 Jun 2005
After their first album, Love the Cup, Sons and Daughters continue to impress with an album that mixes a raw and rich traditional British alternative feel with folk music and the kind of low-down, mean and dirty sort of Country and Western that Johnny Cash used to play. From the bouncy enthusiasm of the first track, Medicine, to the every-beat-has-an-impact ride of the last track, Gone, this album pulls you in and spins you round. It's fun, it's dark, it's reverential to those who have gone before (the aforementioned JC, Nick Cave, et al, and I can't help but think of the great Siouxsie Sioux when I listen to Royally Used) but S&D have not plagiarised so much as taken their influences and made a fresh and innovative sound that is so wonderfully British in its own way, yet accessible to so many. My faves at the moment linger more near the end of the album - Choked, Monsters, Rama Lama, Royally Used - but the beauty of S&D is that each song effects you in a different way and, depending on my mood, I may well change that favourite list in a wee while. If you like old school Goth or New Wave or American Independent, if you enjoy folk or C&W, if you just want a good old bop, give this album a try.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
....purveyors of the dark art, 27 Mar 2006
By A Customer
A good but not great album. I've got a feeling that their live show is much better than this and that they may be the kind of band that finds it hard to translate frrom live to studio.....in saying that there's more than enough to recommend it. Singing in accents that would grace a Proclaimers album they draw on a mix of influences ranging from the Bad Seeds, Lee Hazlewood, Alex Harvey, Goodbye Mr Mackenzie and other such purveyors of the dark art. Coming so soon after Franz Ferdinand and leading the way for new bands such as My Latest Novel and Isa & the Filthy Tongues, Sons & Daughters are a welcome addition to Scotlands music legacy.
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