Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sheer brilliance., 13 Mar 2006
So Long, Scarecrow is the kind of music that you listen to whilst not doing anything else, because you can’t do anything else but sit and listen. It’s a spinetingling collection of dreamy guitar-heavy pop, opening with the seductive, crackling "Hello London" and closing with the title track, which is best described as minimalist; just Jessicka’s vocals and a slow, repetitive bassline. The tracks inbetween range from being melodic and almost mournful ("[Northbound On] Cahuenga", "In The Pretend World", "Stapled To The Mattress"), to guitar-fuelled energy ("City Noise", "We Are The Music Makers").It's very different to Sweet Heart Dealer - a lot calmer and much more mellow - and a far cry from Jessicka's Jack Off Jill days. Scarling. are a refreshing change from the mainstream without being cliché or trite. So Long, Scarecrow is an album which can only be heard to be believed.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
They are the music makers., 7 Sep 2005
The very first time i listened to this album i liked it, but was a little disappointed - 'So long,scarecrow' is more mellow than Scarling.'s last offering - 'Sweet Heart Dealer'. But a few more listens made me realise something terribly important. Scarling. dont need to be brash and expletive filled to be powerful - their ferocity comes from their sheer beauty. With faultless drumming from new member Beth Gordon, guitars reminiscent of early Placebo and Jessicka's amazing voice, Scarling. have something that most bands don't - a sort of filthy beauty. Sometimes sounding sweet on the surface, the lyrics are filled with pain, regret and anger. Each track is stunning and offers something different from the last, but all are deliciously catchy. It would be impossible to pick a favourite, but 'We Are The Music Makers' sums up Scarling. perfectly - it's dark, catchy, awesome, with lyrics like 'we kiss like painted tigers/but we bleed like no one else'. SLS is music that you can sing and dance along to, but also music that you could hysterically self destruct to.Buy this CD, put it on, and let Scarling. blast you into the sweetest oblivion you could ever envisage.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
So Long, Other Albums, 2 Sep 2005
After we were left with a beautiful aural bruising in 2004, L.A. based Scarling. could have driven their music many different ways. Every single song on their seven-track debut, Sweet Heart Dealer, left a different impression. It's hard to imagine before listening to So Long, Scarecrow, that Scarling. could create yet another different mark, having left so many already. Nevertheless, each of the thirteen tracks taken from this stunning LP have new emotion and new beauty whilst retaining the depth and texture which makes their sound so original in the first place.The opening track is the first step at introducing you to a whole new plethora of feeling. Firstly Beth Gordon takes one cannon-fuelled bang on the drum and the two seconds you wait, for the rest of the album to start, with a distant fading of sound seems like a lifetime. Like small children at a sweetshop, you're then dragged in by a multitude of stimuli. Jessicka adds sincere vocals that warm to the heart. The mixture of melodic majesty that pours from the guitars of Christian Hejnal, Derik Snell and Rickey Lime is the kind of music you only wish you could create. Being able to manage a profusion of sound that resonates music made by My Bloody Valentine and yet having a completely archetypal sound at the same time takes absolute genius. From songs like "Northbound On (Cahuenga)" that create a quiescent atmosphere to the noise-pop "City Noise", it's clear that Scarling. have created a masterpiece. If you've ever wanted to effectuate love, all you need do is hit play. Accessible chaotic beauty bleeds through your stereo on "Stapled To The Mattress". Every word that splits from Jessicka's lips fractures the valves in your heart.
... "You're naked,
And shaking,
Like a two-bit Judas," ...describes exactly how you feel when you're still only forty-five seconds into the song. This song is an emotional reflection of the album as a whole. It's the perfect picture of a stunning range of talent: lyrically, musically and vocally. It would be extremely easy to write pages about each song that appears on So Long, Scarecrow but this album has mystery like no other album I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. Perhaps "Sweet Heart Dealer" was an experiment, an idea, a step-between a previous and a present. "So Long, Scarecrow" is evolution, a future and a whole lot more that you're just going to have to not stop listening to ...
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