Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Quintessentially Decadent, 6 Aug 2001
Time Is Of Essence is the most British album you'll hear this year. Fort Lauderdale's music has the distinction tempered with a touch of decadence often associated with late nineteenth Century Britain. Although Steve Webster and Toby Jenkins offer a fundamentally electronic vision, their epic arrangements are of cinematic grandeur. This is orchestral synth-pop. Pianos, accordions and string sections confront electronic guitars, wurlitzers, cheap seventies gimmicks and analogue sounds to create a disparate atmosphere. The occasional addition of vocals (Time Is Of The Essence, Flux 1912, The Playboys Demise) only accentuates the dichotomy of the Fort Lauderdale equation. For this second album, the duo twist their sonic world just a little bit more. They constantly seem to follow a multitude of musical lines at the same time, placing them randomly on top of each other in a gigantic Lego. The compositions are complex and creative. However, Webster and Jenkins always manage to isolate their enlightened melodies enough to avoid musical chaos. We Ain't Got No Money Honey, which opens the album, is a majestic piece of incisive work, served by tear-jerking strings, swirling harps and guitars and twitchy keyboards. As they swerve on the verge of psychedeliam, the Air-esque Down Cricket Lilly Lane and Flux 1912 revisit seventies prog rock, while The Playboys Demise flirts with soft porn background muzak and nursery rhymes nostalgia. Fort Lauderdale act as if they desperately wanted to loose their listeners in their imaginary maze, only to change their mind and guide them to safety. Far from being confusing though, Time Is Of The Essence is a captivating record, filled with influences ranging from Bowie to Pink Floyd and from The Beatles to John Barry, constantly playing with emotions, and feeling like a sixties futuristic movie soundtrack. Although Time Is The Essence is only Fort Lauderdale's second album, the band already shows an impressive sense of direction, as they combine superb melodies and beautiful arrangements.
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3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Don't Believe The Hype!, 24 Jan 2002
Ok, so its got all the usual bleeps and whirrs to make it audio-friendly to the unseasoned chill-afficiondo, but if you've already been listening to Air since they came out in the mid 90's ,and get annoyed by the fact that every second documentary on the BBC contains a Zero Seven soundtrack, then you'll find this CD rather passe.
Admittedly, the first half is pretty good and very easy to listen to, but it tapers off to a rather anachronistic charicature of what upbeat ambient is supposed to sound like. Not very groundbreaking. But adequate.
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cinematic weirdness, 11 Nov 2001
Great studio album, with eclectic weirdness. If you like something that keeps your mind occupied and your ears intersted then this is the album for you. Cinematic string sweeps, moogs, mellowtrons, wurlitzers and much moor. Essential!
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