Introspective daydream with beautiful pop melodies.
Line of beauty in jazz | Miami, FL | 05/19/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Au Revoir Simone (Brooklyn-based trio comprised of Heather D' Angelo, Erika Forster and Annie Hart) release a new studio album on their own label, Our Secret Recording Company.
Apparently their strange and yet evocative and nostalgic name comes from a line in the cult movie Pee-Wee Herman's "Big Adventure".
Produced by Thom Monahan (Vetiver, Little Joy) and recorded in various studios between Brooklyn,NY, and Los Angeles, CA, the CD features songs written by all three ladies and has a strong thematic cohesion, as if composed by a singular voice.
They seem to take themselves a little more seriously on this set while keeping their signature sound.
They have described their disarmingly minimalist music quite accurately as "dreamy electronic lo-fi keyboard pop".
"Still Night, Still Light" finds the three ladies in a contemplative mood, musing on the emotional tolls of the touring lifestyle.
It's a record that details reflection, seeking, questioning and losing one's place on the page while looking for the right way home.
Considering the album's subject matter, maybe these early tracks are meant to represent the half-awake existence of the travelling musician, conveying the effect of constantly shifting between the buzz of the stage and the lull of the tour bus.
Having ditched the bells and whistles featured on their second album "The Bird Of Music", a fantastic dream where dancing penguins and talking panda's take you to the house you grew up in, this third effort focuses entirely on their keyboard drones, clunky-but-appealing rhythm tracks and curiously blank, though oddly appealing voices, still showing the ever-so-delicate, casio-heavy dream pop down as they explore their dark side.
It's more of an introspective daydream where a parallel world plays out like a movie if you only took the other path at that fork that was once in the road.
Brilliantly executed, warm and personal, the album combines its icy starkness with an almost contradictory fervour,choosing to retain its fragile beauty without ever breaking it.
"With pop melodies as winning as "Shadows" and the manically noodling "Knight Of Wands", you may soon find yourself quietly humming along". -BBC
The Bird of Music"
Good, with...
Mark C. | Seattle, WA United States | 10/24/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"greater POTENTIAL -a destiny beyond simple pop
I heard them on the radio-and was intriqued enough to look here
they are young-yet seem to have a clue-a certain maturity
-they look bright-rather-they sound and look a lack of pretense and myopia
not your typical pop music;
a year of music theory
write about anything EXCEPT BF/GF/relationships
-been done to death; we need more music with insight, observations into the world around us-as it crumbles- music about the others
oblique lyrics always draw me which they seem to have an grasp of
graduate from the casio diversify instruments
I KNOW they would blossom and do really well
pop doesnt last
musicians do
"
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1