söndag 6 Apr 2008, 10:06
Well, what to say about this album by The Indelicates? I think, the most important thing to say is: Every band which has multiple vocalists tends to make people choose which one is better (there are exceptions, like Travis, but they have only one vocalist and the others just sing sometimes). If a band has vocalists of different genders, it just multiplies the problem. Yes, it is hard to compare female to male singers but usually you simply cannot do so so there is no need to solve this difficulty.
It's different with The Indelicates: They are proud to have both and imho it's not the best idea to have. The first half of the album, the two "Indelicates", Simon and Julia, take turns in singing. It reflects on the quality of the songs, as I will point out. It also makes them be sorted not by their melody or music but by the singer, which is a really stupid way to sort music by. In the second half, there are some songs they both sing.
1. New Art For The People (Theme) - No vocals, a pleasant intro for the album, featuring the song's melody
2. The Last Significant Statement To Be Made in Rock'n'Roll (Simon) - A rock song, starts off boring but becomes interesting. Julia's backing vocals really help it.
3. Our Daughters Will Never Be Free (Julia) - Reminiscent to the music by The Pipettes, Julia's former band. A fastpaced but really enjoyable song I can hear all the time.
4. Better To Know (Simon) - A slow song, not really good but as with everything on the album, there is nothing really bad. Great lyrics though and it grows on you (after hearing it a couple of times)
5. Sixteen (Julia) - How fun it would be to be sixteen again…as with her previous song on the album, a great piece I really enjoyed
6. Julia, We Don't Live in the '60s (Simon) - As with "Last Significant Statement", Julia's backing vocals really help the chorus to be better than the rest of the song. It's better than "Last Significant Statement" though, no doubt about that.
7. Stars (Julia) - You see the pattern here? Yes, it's Julia singing again. It starts off slowly but gains speed fast and develops into a nice rock song.
8. New Art For The People (Julia, Simon) - Starts with Simon and Julia takes over after a minute, then changes again to end with a duet. It's the song, you can see aforementioned differences best. Those parts Julia sings are (imho) far better.
9. If Jeff Buckley Had Lived (Simon) - An ode to Jeff Buckley, it's Simon's best solo song on the album.
10. Unity Mitford (Julia) - A nice ballad, showcasing her amazing voice, but nothing special compared with her other songs.
11. America (Julia, Simon) - A great song, especially the chorus where Julia helps it and her singing at the end.
12. Heroin (Simon) - I don't know what to make of this song. It's pleasant but not really great, even with Julia's help in the chorus. It's one of those songs you forget after hearing them.
13. We Hate The Kids (Julia, Simon) - The "rebel"-song of the album. Or so it seems. As with "New Art for the People", they switch between singers which has a nice effect and Simon is not too bad in this one. Ends with them both singing and is a good rock song.
14. Secret Track (Julia, Simon) - A slow song, it is not bad but after the last song ended with "No more music - Thank you and good night", this was not really needed. "We Hate The Kids" would have been a much better ending.
As to prevent flaming: I am not saying the album is bad (it's very good, I bought it after all) and I am not saying, Simon can't sing (he can but the album forces you to compare him to Julia, who has a much better voice).
But more of Julia and less of Simon, combined with a track sorting which does not care about the singer but about how the tracks fit together would have made this album a great album instead of a very good one. That said, I urge you to buy it, despite my rants, it's far better than most of the things you hear these days :-)