somewhat like walking through a graveyard at night and finding
someone's decorated the gravestones with disco balls and fairy lights, the
debut album by the chemistry experiment showers stone coldness with a little
bit of everyday glamour. the nottingham four piece seem to have taken a massive
handful of genres from disco to string laden soul, shaken them up and looked
at what's stuck together. so tales of broken hearts laying in the gutter
are given a shine by an up-tempo home made disco beat whilst unfolding kitchen
sink dramas are twisted through and through with a multitude of instruments
that seem to tumble to the floor. unfortunately all this mixture sometimes
results in tunes that seem too tangled up for their own good, particularly
in the first part of the album. but, as the melancholy death of…progresses
the group seem to regain their focus; good morning with its tale of domestic
catastrophe begins and ends with the sound of a bingo organ but somewhere
in between to group spiral out in a shower of instruments into something
far more prog-rock. whilst stopped clocks has a dark rumbling moodiness of
its own that slowly pads the floor on a roll of drums and violins only to
be followed by the electronic shimmer of what are we good for, a tunes that's
just as melancholic just in a more programmed way.
those missing the early days of pulp will find soul mates in the chemistry
experiment especially in the rich but somehow deadpan vocals of lead singer
steven j kirk who by keeping his voice central to proceedings becomes the albums
only constant, from the ballad like opener starlite ballroom to the looping
crash of cymbals and declaration of love in we were never wrong.
whilst at times the melancholy death of…sees the chemistry experiment become
unravelled, when the album does shine it manages to glow like a glitterball
that's been set on fire.
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