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rating : 8 |
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"You mustn't judge a book by his cover" was one of the things
my old grandma told me back then when Russia was still communist. Even
though I judge girls by the way they dress -i obviously don't want to be
seen hanging out with a girl dressed in purple- i've learnt the hard way
that albums with very very ugly covers can turn out to be great
albums. So i put the Enon cd in my cd player without any bad feeling, even
though my eyes were in pain after staring at the fluorescent cover for a couple
of seconds.
Enon are a NYC band with a female japanese bass player named Toko Yasuda.
Most songs are written by a fellow named John Schmersal and the girl sings a
couple more. Toko Yasuda used to be in Blonde Redhead and The Lapse by the
way. They sound cool. US indie rock style. I'm going to refer to John
Schmersal as "the guy" and Toko Yasuda as "the girl"
from this point. So. The guy's song are indie pop/rock jewels à la Pavement
and the girl's songs are almost electro-pop stuff. Indie dancefloor material
with catchy bass lines and a cute voice (the accent is cool too.) This
album, Enon's second, is filled with 15 cool, well written songs.
My
favourite song by the guy is "Window Display" which, even though
nobody else seem to notice it, is awesome. It makes me think of a cool
Swervedriver song (post-shoegazing/brit-pop era) and I'm pretty sure Noel
Gallagher would kill any of his ex-wives to write such a song. The chorus is
brilliant. it goes like this : "I bought a window display and married
her at once/I broke the remote control and she hasn't talked for months."
Sounds almost as cool as a Stephen Malkmus song. I underestimated the
catchiness of the girl's songs. "In this City" is great, and
"Disposable Parts" is even better. Drum-machine, bass guitar, cool
keyboards and an awesome chorus. This is going to make all the hip people
dance this summer. Its only problem is its being dramatically short
(1:54!!!) The next cool song is by the guy. It's called "Sold!"
and it sounds kinda like "Window Display" excepted that it's not
as good. "Shoulder" (by the girl) is cool. Not as danceable as
"Disposable Parts" it sounds a little more glamorous, like what
Garbage could do if they were not a bunch of market whores. The second
greatest song by the guy in the album after "Window Display" is
titled "Natural Disasters" and it's cool. Great guitar lines. a
little bluesy, pavement-style. The second greatest song by the girl in the
album, after "Disposable Parts" is titled "Salty" and it
has a furious chorus. The third greatest song by the guy on the album (ex-aequo)
: "Old Dominion", which opens the album in such a cool way and
"High Society", the title track, with violins, sax and luxury.
Makes you (me) want to dance with a well-dressed cute girl at the end of a
oh-so-cool party. The last song, "Diamond Raft" is a great closer.
Even if the cover looks like one, this album's much more enjoyable than any
of the purple-dressed girls i've met so far.
-Vsevolod