Ever since 2007's critically acclaimed '23' album International trio Blonde Redhead have consistently been held up as the very height of reserved cool. Never ones to stick with what works though the trio have adopted a much softer sound for their most recent album 'Penny Sparkle', a dense, melancholic beauty of a record named for singer Kazu Makino's dying pet horse. The silken voiced siren is definitely the bands trump card, the timbre of her voice and the way she can shift faultlessly between such subtle and histrionic vocal styles is truly captivating and really sets her apart as one of alternative rocks most interesting female vocalists.
The voice would mean nothing of course if the melodies were useless and melodies here appear to be unbound by classic pop convention and more often hark back to folk and classical music, these delicate melodies really compliment the sparse arrangements and dense, reverberated textures. Sonically the only recent record I could compare Penny Sparkle with is The XX's mercury winning debut, there's not quite as much going on here granted but the hazy, dreamlike state it induces is near identical. At it's heart though this is a pop record bursting at the seams with melody and invention.
The most immediately striking track is the opener 'Here Sometimes', a song that bursts out of the gates with melody, ambition and intent on a bed of floating electronic drums, dazed synths and eccentric Bjorkisms. Makino's glacial voice sits almost alone for a whole minute amidst a subtle electronic rhythm before a wave of synths and distant guitars join the party as the track gently builds to it's climax. Next comes the comparatively sparse 'Not Getting There', a more electronic song that repeats it's forlorn lyrics and simple melody over a stuttering rhythm and rumbling bass synths. The chorus introduces a more modern synth line that sounds like something off The Knifes 'Silent Shout' album, in fact the similarities to the Swedish duo crop up later as well in a more avant-garde setting with the aching darkness of 'Oslo', a track that really stands out on an album otherwise full of melody driven songs with it's aching, claustrophobic menace. Here rhythm and atmosphere take centre stage and it shows a different side of the band's personality.
The penultimate 'Black Guitar' meanwhile recalls Portishead's softer side with it's spy-film guitars and solitary snare drum. It's one of the albums most straight-forward moments and might be the best track to prick the ears of the uninitiated. Another beautiful, ambient pop song on an album stuffed to the gills with beautiful, ambient pop songs. Penny Sparkle is an exceptional record full of 'moments', the moment the surprisingly upbeat chorus kicks in amidst the abject misery of 'Will There Be Stars', the moment 'Love Or Poison' suddenly clicks into place after almost a minute of mood setting atmospherics, 'Spain's' sky-scraping vocal catch and echoing, dub-step indebted middle 8 and the entirety of the heartbreakingly gorgeous 'Everything Is Wrong' (one of my songs of the year thus far!). These are moments of magic, on an extraordinary, devastating album that haunts like a dream and cuts like a knife.
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