Shut up I Am DreamingSunset Rubdown
Absolutely Kosher, 2006
Numerical Feelings: 6.3
Apologies to the Queen Mary gets quite good with time. The music doesn't speak in normal rock terms; songs treat plain, driving melodies as rousing and gorgeous, they regard the second quarter of the song as a good time to begin the triumphant finale. The result is confusing and inscruitable, at times, but when the elements of each song are taken on their own terms, the message becomes clearer, and impressively cogent. The psychedelic experiments of Shut Up I am Dreaming are rather the same, but without that nice second part.
Following even more obscure and wandering paths, the song structure for most tracks doesn't cohere -- and as such the plainer, less inspired melodies don't get swept up in the rush, but remain in place as jarring breaks from each song's grander movements. Like psychedelic is meant to be, Dreaming is too insular and self-absorbed to really get a handle on. Wavering, twinkling figures ring through in tones too high to make out; a harsh metallic texture is there under everything, reflecting blinding flashes of white light, half heavenly, half ugly; the wide open spaces in low and mid-low register beg to complement buzzing keyboard solos and whispery vocals, unfulfilled. And if the melodies were really universally likeable, that might all be ok; but they aren't, and so the album drags.
There is only one complete exception here, namely the gushing, overwhelming radiance of the opener -- but there are plenty of other almosts, such as the pulsing shoreline shimmer of the closer, which at the end does not provide enough new ideas to justify the long close. And were it not for the far misses of the three songs before it, the smaller flaws of the closer and the album's first half might make Dreaming more of a winner.
7.06.2006
Shut Up I Am Dreaming is the work of Wolf Parade's Spencer Krug, whose other band only last year made their full-length debut with the stellar Apologies to the Queen Mary. One presumes she would be only too willing to accept.
Running Time: 46.10
Metacritic Score: 80
Track Listing:
01 Stadiums and Shrines II*
02 They Took a Vote and Said No
03 Us Ones in Between
04 I'm Sorry I Sang on Your Hands that Have Been in the Grave*
05 Snakes Got a Leg III
06 The Empty Threats of Little Lord
07 Swimming
08 The Men Are Called Horsemen There
09 Q-Chord
10 Shut Up I Am Dreaming of Places Where Lovers Have Wings*
(*: best to play)
(Metacritic belongs to CNET Networks, Inc. They give an accurate idea of general critical feeling.)
This Review Copyright twentypelicans.com, 2006
Running Time: 46.10
Metacritic Score: 80
Track Listing:
01 Stadiums and Shrines II*
02 They Took a Vote and Said No
03 Us Ones in Between
04 I'm Sorry I Sang on Your Hands that Have Been in the Grave*
05 Snakes Got a Leg III
06 The Empty Threats of Little Lord
07 Swimming
08 The Men Are Called Horsemen There
09 Q-Chord
10 Shut Up I Am Dreaming of Places Where Lovers Have Wings*
(*: best to play)
(Metacritic belongs to CNET Networks, Inc. They give an accurate idea of general critical feeling.)
This Review Copyright twentypelicans.com, 2006