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With 21 reviews and counting, there's not much I can add to what's been said. *Cue verbal diarrhoea onslaught, all the same*
If we're talking comparisons, I can only say - for whatever it's worth - that it's head and shoulders above Wide/r Angle (as great as that was) and closer to my all-time favourite, Morning Sci-fi, for brooding drama and in the way it unfolds like an Icelandic weather system.
From the opening bars of Empire, feeling energised, it's hard not to say to yourself: "Bloody hell, I love Hybrid" - dark breakbeat energy which reminds you of Crystal Method's (sparse) moments of brilliance back in the 90s. This mood is picked up again later in Original Sin, a kind of Gravastar Mark II.
Apart from that, there are a series of impeccably crafted vocal tracks. No, not just tracks, but SONGS, all stamped with Hybrid's signature orchestral/breakbeat, um, hybrid.
My only complaint, and I realise this is an entirely subjective one, is that, as accomplished as all her musical contributions are to this masterful album, Charlotte James' vocal might have been sacrificed once or twice during proceedings. For another vocalist, that is. It's just that it put me in mind of Wide Angle in as much as I invariably get a bit fed up of the sameness of Julee Cruise's more idiosyncratic stylings on that album, and while Disappear Here features many strong songs that would even bear X Factor reworkings ("Please, god, no!" I hear you cry, and I agree. Just that they are so complete in their own right), the vocal doesn't always soar with the arrangement.
When you've written good songs, it must be hard to give some of them away, and Charlotte sings very, very well, no doubt about that. It's just that in one or two places her voice just doesn't seem to fit the song. It's spot on when it comes to the excellent title track, as well as the compelling Salt, and she knocks it out of the ballpark on Break My Soul (which everyone's rightly raving about), perfectly restrained on Every Word...OK, I realise I'm contradicting myself a bit here...any yet, and yet... I think Formula Of Fear and Original Sin really would have benefited from a much rockier, more upfront vocal (a Siouxsie, Shirley Manson or even a Beth Ditto). By the time I got to Tim Hutton's contribution on Take A Fall, it felt like a welcome respite, which is the kind of distracting thought you can do without when you're trying to immerse yourself in Hybrid's peerless MUSIC. And the wistful Numb may not close the album as memorably as, say, Blackout did on Morning Sci-fi. Again, with a different, less "folky" vocal, it might have done. If you want an example of how a range of vocalists can be used to enhance the flow of an album, check out Above and Beyond's "Tri-State" - brilliant!
Anyway, with no disrespect intended to the enormously talented Charlotte James, that's the end of my banging on that theme. Her joining up with Hybrid is a very fortunate confluence of musical talents, for sure. Only other comment on the track listing - Green Shell Suit... lovely.
Hybrid might not be the most prolific outfit, but, boy is it always worth the wait!
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