Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ultra impressive sophomore album, 20 Dec 2006
I'm a recent convert to this 'post-rock' movement. In the past, pummeling riffs, passionate vox and driving rhythms were my forte. Recently I started listening to the likes of Mogwai, Grails and such, and have latched onto this 'post-rock' thing with both hands.
And so we come to this. I have purchased a lot of albums this year (the aformentioned Mogwai album 'Mr Beast' being just one) and I rate 'Every Red Heart...' as being one of the best, if not the best, album released this year. I am of the opinion that this beats the new Isis album 'Absence of Truth' hands down.
As each listen passes, the depth of this album increases, the emotions conjured listening to these vocal-less, epic tracks become more passionate to the extent now where, one day last week, on my way to work, on public transport, I almost wept. It is a dark, brooding affair that will leave you exhilarated and exhausted at the same time.
This is an extraordinary creation, the whole being so much greater than the sum of its parts. It is infinitely better than the debut, which I found a bit too light and airy. The claustrophobia this album develops is enveloping and intense - as it should be for an 'epic' release.
Try to listen to the LP version. The greater fidelity offered by the vinyl format does wonders for the sound.
As a rawk n roll convert, this album is essential. For those of you not yet moving through post rock, doom and the like, this is a perfect introduction.
Incredible.
|
|
|
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A post-rock album of surprising honesty and eventfulness, 6 Oct 2006
Enough to look at the cover and read the songs' titles and this looks like your ordinary post-rock album: pretentious long titles in a sad absurdist vein. You start listening to it and again all the notorious post-rock elements are there: the dark atmosphere, the tremolo guitar, the tragic outbursts. Yet one realizes while listening further into the album that with Red Sparrowes pretentiousness pretty much stops at the cover and song titles, for this is as 'honest' (for lack of a better word) a post-rock album as you are likely to find. Although the mannerisms of the genre are all in place, there's not 'classical' touch, no cellos or violins, no attempts to create profound, symphonic seriousness, but this band just gets on with the business of creating instrumental rock without seeking desperately for 'mature' trimmings. Not that this album lacks seriosuness or depth or maturity - it has its moments of great inspiration and sad beauty, but they just seem to happen naturally rather than be sought after at all cost. The result is an album which is eventful (quite rare in post-rock), spontaneous, with something happening every minute and keeping you hooked. This is an 'entertaining' post-rock album (however strange that association of terms might seem), and you'll find it difficult to stop it once you press play (which again cannot be said too often with some of today's abusively lenghty post-rock suites). It is also very homogenous and no specific songs can be pointed out in particular. It flows naturally from beginning to end and has a lot of harmonies, events, sounds and rhythms in stock to keep you interested, without becoming 'light' and 'poppy' but maintaining its somber dark poise so beloved to post-rock fans. Be warned - this albums brings nothing original or novel, nor does it avoid the cliches of the genre, but the important new things it brings are its honesty and lack of pretentiousness and the fact that the band behind it has a lot to say musically. Honestly. A recommended listen for the lovers of the genre and of rock in general.
|
|
|
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Takes a while to get into it... but it's worth it!, 29 Nov 2006
As a big fan of heavy music, and also a big fan of post-rock, the new red sparowes release should be a big deal for me. Ostensibly a heavy music super-group (featuring members of Isis, Neurosis, Angel Hair and occasionally Pelican), Red Sparowes should have the recipe for success. Unfortunately they also seem to have the power to disappoint too; at the soundless dawn had elements of excellence, but also had a distinct air of being a band who hadn't met their potential yet.
When I first got this album, I automatically felt enthusiastic- the long song titles, bizarre subject matter and narrative structure were still there. However, on first listening I was slightly perturbed- the band seem to regularly go down routes, spiralling, but then not quite committing to any sort of real crescendo. Unlike their genre predecessors God Speed! they never go all out. This perturbed me, and on first listening i was unimpressed; so, I did a bit of research...
If you start to explore what they are trying to do, if you look up the story of the eponymous: 'Red Sparowes' (the tale of Chinese cull of Red Sparrows and eventual mass starvation because of a plague of locusts), then you can actually learn that they aren't trying to do that. The story doesn't grow to the biggest crescendos, as the story doesn't allow for that. The more downbeat songs are only natural, as they're trying to track a tale with natural ebbs and flows.
It's only with this effort that I truly engaged with the album; one needs to search for artistic intention here, as it's not obvious. They aren't handing it to you on a plate, you need to fully attune yourself to the mood to actually work it out.
I saw the band live recently, and they used visuals to actually get across the structure. To some extent those visuals should be included (they aren't) to get the message across.
If you're a fan of pretension, then this is one of the albums that you should buy.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
~ Red Sparowes
~ This Will Destroy You
~ This Will Destroy You
~ Russian Circles
~ Russian Circles
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). 
Amazon Home