Alright, so this is where I stand on the band. Before going further, I'll qualify what I'm to say by beginning with saying what I've heard of them: I've listened to Mass Romantic and Electric Version extremely thoroughly, and a couple of the floating mp3s from Challengers; I am yet to hear a thing off Twin Cinema.
Mass Romantic, the debut, is a tremendous album which succeeds in being considerably more than just one big splodge of cheery power pop. It gets rather more altogether complex, weird and ethereal than that, what with tracks like Execution Day and The Centre For Holy Wars, but there's even a sense of variance and eclectic diversity recurring throughout the album's poppier numbers on the first side of the record: the raw power pop of the title track, the choppiness and relentless drive of Mystery Hours, the Todd Rundgren-esque Fake Headlines...The Slow Descent has echos of David Bowie in places. In addition to these extensive attempts at various styles, the record's fuzzy, choppy, and bizarrely edgy and audacious. And that is the story of Mass Romantic.
With Electric Version, the tale is rather different. To begin, I'll state the obvious: in terms of pure hookery and catchiness this album is a winner. Newman is clearly a genius at what he does - he grabs ahold of your attention with the opening title track, and rarely lets go for the next 45 minutes. But, with that said, you cannot help feeling that there's something terribly wrong with the record.
Even on the first listen, it sticks out so sorely that one cannot help but notice. For the first 3 or 4 tracks you're thinking this is great, but then all of a sudden, as the album progresses, something dawns: track after track after track, there is simply a lack of variation in tone, in mood, in tempo, in style, even in melody (they even rehash a hook from the title track in The New Face Of Zero And One - scandalous!), almost to the point that it feels formulaic. No, I'll go further - it DOES come off sounding formulaic. It overloads with one main musical motif relentlessly until you're well and truly sick to your stomach of it. The wild experimentation of Mass Romantic is all but withered away.
Newman appears to get stuck in a niche, and isn't sure where to go next. Was this an attempt at creating a more coherent sound, or a simple lack of fresh ideas? Either way, in exchange for its relative coherence, much that was good about the band in the first place has been sacrificed.
Has anybody heard Twin Cinema? If so, what can you tell me about it? I ought to listen myself but I'm curious to hear how fans think it fares relative to the previous outing.
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