The Album Club: "Somewhere Deep In the Night" by Swing Out Sister
 

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Next one up. As it's Christmas, feel free to review whenever you can. No real time limit. Discuss, rate, review and comment as ever here.

I didn't really want to be the first one with my review because I'm sure there are some people out there that like Swing Out Sister and this album. I regret to say I'm not one of them; sorry, Anteater.

But it is what it is so here goes...



Swing Out Sister- Somewhere In the Night (2001)


Best Tracks: Somewhere Deep in the Night, Where Do I Go

Weakest Tracks: Alpine Crossing, The Vital Thing, Now Listen To Me



I think I said somewhere (a Carpenters thread I think) where I said I wasn’t much of an MOR person.

And this album screams MOR to me. If it was earlier Swing Out Sister, I might have thought to at least give them a Meh rating, maybe even a like, but this album, I’m sorry to say, bores me. I listen to Alpine Crossing for example, and it sounds like something out some lounge act from the sixties, maybe something of a Brasil 66 vibe. Anyway, I wasn’t really all that impressed. Non E Vero Ma Ci Credo is another one I found especially blah. It’s like they thought they were clever by doing an instrumental in Italian. I will say I liked Where Do I Go at least. I’m assuming that was a single taken from the album?

I guess my biggest criticism is that Swing Out Sister doesn’t seem to be especially adventurous. I’d give points if they were trying to go out of their comfort zone, but maybe they were too afraid of alienating their fan base, which they certainly have. Of course I don’t expect them to suddenly go metal, but maybe they could go a little more folk or country for example while not losing their basic style.

So as a band in their genre, I’m sure this album would fare better, but for me, I have to rate it as something of a disappointment, sorry.








3/10 (the Word has spoken :()

They're a big influence on Stereolab and a lot of the other bossa nova / jazz pop revivalists, but I didn't pick Kaleidoscope World or their early 90's stuff. :p:

Somewhere Deep In The Night deviates from their usual sound a bit by incorporating influences from the Stylistics and their ilk, so I can see where the MOR tag applies. You might like some of their acid jazz stuff more.

Goddamnit

I can’t find this ****ing record!

I got it off YouTube, Occult. They didn't have it on Spotify.


Yeah, I can see the connection to Stereolab, who I do like by the way. Assuming the album is similar to Happy When You're High, I could have easily given Filth and Dreams a like. Most of what I knew about Swing Out Sister otherwise were a couple of videos on VH1 that didn't impress me all that much so it's good to see they were a little more adventurous than I thought.

You found the whole thing on youtube?

I just ran across a couple tracks.

Did you find them lined up or did you have to go digging for each one individually?

Try this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMsN...Mxt4lnTar_Inrw

Cool

Thanks to both of you

It certainly is on Spotify.

https://open.spotify.com/album/2QrKtrXJO43ZP5bulzHTST