Published on Mar 19, 1999
When I was in college, I was given my first taste of true
alternative music courtesy of Anthony, who was the music director
at the campus radio station. (He’s since gone on to bigger and
better things in the music industry… couldn’t happen to a nicer
guy.) One day, he threw a copy of the latest Cocteau Twins tape
across the cubicles to me. I listened to it that night in the dorm
– and almost threw up. My musical tastes were expanding, to be
sure, but I wasn’t quite ready to go that far across the border.
(Believe it or not, I still have that tape, hidden deep in the
aisles of the Pierce Memorial Archives.)
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve been able to appreciate this textured
style of music more and more. One such example,
Out Of Tune from Mojave 3, demonstrates to me that there are
some wonderfully gentle performances out there on the market, but
even gentleness can go a little too far.
The band – guitarist/vocalist Neil Halstead, bassist/backing
vocalist Rachel Goswell, drummer Ian McCutcheon, guitarist Simon
Rowe and keyboardist Alan Forrester – has a very American sound to
their music, although the band is based in the United Kingdom. The
music has a very acoustic texture to it, although electric guitars
are used where needed. In a sense, being able to craft such a sound
is something special, and is well worth checking out.
Musically,
Out Of Tune has some great moments on it. The opening track
“Who Do You Love” sets the tone for the album by building up an
easy rhythm and getting the listener caught up in the music.
Although that tone is broken slightly by the use of “fuck” on “Give
What You Take”, Mohave 3 quickly recover from the slip.
All of this is well and good, and it would be easy for me to say
that
Out Of Tune is an album that you can ease into.
Unfortunately, the sound is so laid back and homogeneous at times
that you almost become hypnotized by the music, and it simply
becomes a backing track to whatever you’re doing. Tracks like “Some
Kinda Angel” and “Yer Feet” quickly become blurred together – not
the best thing to be happening at the halfway point of any
album.
Fortunately, the harmony vocals of Goswell come into play and
make things different again, revitalizing one’s interest in the
album. Tracks like “Caught Beneath Your Heel” and “This Road I’m
Travelling” stand out more than some of their cousins. And while
the album ends on a strong note with “To Whom Should I Write,”
Mojave 3 start to slide back into the old patterns right near the
end.
Of course, in the big picture of things that could go wrong with
an album, having an album become almost hypnotic is not terribly
big – in fact, some of these songs do work well as simple
“background” music to one’s day. But to someone that wants to be
able to pay attention to what they’re listening to,
Out Of Tune makes sure that this task will be more
difficult.
It’s still a great album that demonstrates the power of music
that has at least part of its roots in the acoustic vein, but
Mojave 3 does need to try to break the routine up a little more the
next time.