Here we go...
This is Poliça’s second album. It was released on October 18
of 2013. The standard version was released on Mom + Pop Music. There were a
limited number of bootlegs pressed (500) in the US. Each was a white cover with a
hand drawn picture in sharpie and the band autographed the back. In the UK they got a
limited red pressing of the record. I got a standard version because I did not
find out about the white label bootleg version until after they had sold out. A
lot of the online dealers have been pixilating the graphic assuming that the
red on the girls neck and back was blood. The band has stated that it is just
red hair die and some of those dealers have taken the pixilation off of the
graphic. The album as a whole is not what I was expecting from the group.
Honestly I expected something on par or more up beat from the group. I was a
little let down. The album is good but it is a little depressing.
There has been two singles released from the album digitally
so far. The first single released is called Tiff. This song features Justin
Vernon on vocals. His vocals are used very sparingly as background to mimic the
lead singer’s vocals on the chorus. The song is very slow but has a good drum
beat. The song has a cool sort of R&B feel. The chorus is a good hook but
it is so short and the verse is very bland. This song becomes very forgettable.
The second single released is called Chain My Name. It is
the lead track on the album and is probably the best song on the album. It has
a good drum beat and the lead synth part has slightly bending notes all the
time at random. It gives me an uneasy feeling but is so interesting at the same
time. It is kind of a late 80s sound. It reminds me of something that Tiffany
or Jodie Watley would have made back then.
There are a couple of other songs that I like from the album
but mainly just for the sound that is used not for the music that was created.
I think that this is why I am disappointed with the album. They took the time
to make some really cool sounds but it is such a depressing album that I don’t
want to listen to the songs. It could be me and where I am in life at the
moment that it doesn’t sit right. I will come back to it later and maybe it
will be better.Just to be clear, it is not that I don't like the music, it just wasn't what I was expecting.
I have gotten my Graveface Records Indie Go-go stuff in the
mail finally. This album was one of the items that I got in the box. I got both
the record and the CD. The record is hand numbered 141 out of 500 and the CD is
number 375 of 500. The vinyl is a very pretty half solid grey half translucent
red. The grey side is splattered with white and the red side is splattered with
white and grey. It looks really cool. The reason that I got the record was that
it also had two extra tracks from the CD (I also like colored records). They have
been labeled as a dream pop group in the past. This still fits I think. The
group originally started in 1989, formed by Slowdive guitarist Christian Savill
and Sean Hewson. In this incarnation the band did not go very far. They
reformed in 1999 with Rachel Goldstar. In 2009 Ryan Graveface (Graveface
Records founder) and Sophie Pittaway added contributions to the group. This
album was finished in 2009 and released in 2010.
From what I can find there was one single released digitally.
That song is called Bored Beyond Oblivion. The song is a cool song with the
right amount of distortion on the guitars. The lyrics come off as a teen age
kid looking for something to do, being that age and not being able to do
anything because you don’t have a car or any money. I remember this time of my
life. It was boring. You couldn’t do the fun adult things and you were too old
to play with toys. I think this is where video games came into my life a lot
heavier than before.
The two tracks that are added to the vinyl version of this
release are All The Hurt Inside, track five on side A, and Look And See, track
three on side B.
The album is interesting but, like that Poliça album it is a
bit depressing. I think it is easier to take from Monster Movie because the
vocals are male and therefore are automatically lower in tone. Where as the
lead singer for Poliça is female and higher pitch is supposed to be happier in
my head.
This is an earlier released mini album released in 2004.
This was also a part of my Graveface Indie Go-go set. This album was only
released on CD. There were 1000 copies of this CD put out. The sleeve is on red
card stock with gold foil stamping. It is kind of unique in that way. It has
been said that this album sounds like Yo La Tengo. I don’t know that group well
enough to say that for a fact though.
Letting You Know is the single that was released from this
mini album. The vocals remind me of something that The Beach Boys could have
sang tonally from their later albums. I like this song a lot. It is slow but
the vocals work on the song so well it doesn’t even matter. I got both of these
albums, Transistor and Everyone Is A Ghost, solely on the backing track to the
Whirr charity single. I wrote about that earlier in Vol. 3 Episode 44.
The backing track was from Monster Movie. I liked the track so much but didn’t
go out and get any music from them. When this Indie Go-go thing came up I felt
that was the time to get more into the group. I am happy that I did so.
That is all I have until Halloween...
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