2009-1-22 20:08
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[强推★★★★☆]The Bird And The Bee - Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future[Indie]
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[b]Artist: The Bird And The Bee
Title: Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future
Label: Blue Note
Genre: Indie
Bitrate: 179kbit av.
Time: 00:44:55
Size: 61.11 mb
Rip Date: 2009-01-22
Str Date: 2009-01-27
TrackList:[/b]
1. Fanfare 0:28
2. My Love 3:45
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3. Diamond Dave 3:14
4. What's In The Middle 3:22
5. Ray Gun 4:42
6. Love Letter To Japan 4:08
7. Meteor 3:21
8. Baby 3:49
9. Phil 0:09
10. Polite Dance Song 3:48
11. You're A Cad 3:10
12. Witch 3:55
13. Birthday 3:50
14. Lifespan Of A Fly 3:14
[b]Release Notes:[/b]
This second album from The Bird & The Bee, the side project of
pop magician and multi-instrumentalist Greg Kurstin and
sublime Californian singer-songwriter Inara George, could
easily have been called 'Ray Guns Are Real', named as it is
after the successful testing by the US military of a
functional weapon once believed to belong purely to the realms
of 196os sci-fi. But then a brief glance at the kitsch retro
garb favoured by the duo and a cursory listen to their output
will tell you that here is a pair who mentally and musically
straddle a number of decades. While sounding very much of the
now, they make sure to keep a meticulously shod heel firmly in
the era of polyester space suits and laughable monsters.
There's nothing particularly funny or monstrous about the
music they produce. Rooted in a sunny, bittersweet world of
鬰herry blossoms and candy? their carefree melodies and
George's breezy delivery often belie a darker and more twisted
lyrical undercurrent, as well as a love of the kitschly
absurd. The 'pretty Dave' of 'Diamond Dave' for instance is
'80s tight-trousered and tousled hair rawk god David Lee Roth,
one of George's incongruous adolescent obsessions. Don't be
misled though, Ray Guns?isn't a raised musical eyebrow or a
too-clever-by-half indulgence by two artists with their mind
ultimately on other things. It's packed full of genuinely
sublime moments, which while being smarter than most never
lose their distinct pop sensibility.
'What's In The Middle' is a complicated swirl of mental
impulses wrapped in an otherworldly production that shows off
George's vocal capabilities to the full. The retro gallicisms
of the album's title track find George pining for a 魀retty
little life? doubtless one played against the kind of chamber
pop in which the pair find their musical beauty. First single
鍸ove Letter To Japan' is a more conventional take on the kind
of quirk-pop space filled by former Kurstin employer, Gwen
Stefani, managing to transcend its studied parts to become
something infectiously memorable, while the rich, laidback
recollections of adolescent love of 'Baby' are deep enough to
swim in.
There are two songs you may have heard before. 'Polite Dance
Song' is a welcome inclusion from 2007's Please Clap Your
Hands EP, its memorable video featuring a bizarre pensioner
dance-off in front of a deadpanning Bird and Bee providing a
perfect backdrop to this discordant piece of moody, rumbling
trip-hop. George's seemingly effortless vocal range negotiates
an obstacle course of potential hazards with consummate
professional ease. It's a mark of her abilities that, while
maintaining its technical brilliance, her voice never loses
its warmth and personability. The other old song, 'Birthday'
(from last year's One Too Many Hearts EP), still sounds fresh,
rising above the lavish production trickery of the song's '70s
MOR feel with a promise to 'love you better than them'
seemingly designed to have us swooning by our speakers.
Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future is an album to fall in love
with, and to, from two people who still believe in pretty
lives and beautiful things. There is much here to commend it
and to soothe even the most world-weary and cynical of 21st
century ears. If at times it slides into overly self-conscious
production with too many nods to too many clever influences,
it never loses its sense of the tender. A tenderness that
begins and ends with Inara George's vocals, Greg Kurstin
perhaps realising that despite the impressive roster of pop
luminaries with whom he has worked, there are none quite so
able as the Bird to his Bee.
[b]DL:
[url=http://www.rayfile.com/files/5967558f-e87d-11dd-b6e7-0019d11a795f/]RayFile[/url][/b]