Search - Department of Eagles :: Whitey on the Moon UK Lp

"The Cold Nose"

S.J.R. | Belgium | 01/20/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"So recently, this album was re-released with a new title "The Cold Nose". Why? Because apprently the title "Whitey On The Moon" was already used before by another band and they wanted to avoid any possible future problems. It has no new tracks, it's perfectly the same album, only with a different name and different cover-art. Still, while older fans may be disappointed that there's nothing new about it, I myself am glad. Before, I hadn't heard of these 'Department Of Eagles' and I couldn't possibly know their music was this good.



About the band, think of a good Indie-band, let's take for example Broken Social Scene, and imagine that DJ Shadow would join the band and make an album together. That is how I would describe this band and that is what this album sounds like, in my opinion. This is a band that is equally good in making catchy fun Indierock-songs as in making stunning Electronica, creating trippy soundscapes on big slowed-down Hiphop-beats.



The thing that makes this even more interesting is that those Indie- and Electronica-elements aren't mixed together. They are both nicely divided in two seperate worlds on its own. So, one moment, you're listening to a catchy exciting Rock-song like "Romeo-Goth", and the other moment you're listening to the fascinating soundscapes of "Gravity's Greatest Victory/Rex Snorted Coke" before the big drums roll in, that even DJ Shadow couldn't do better.



Although I'm comparing this band to Broken Social Scene and DJ Shadow, they have their own sound going on, it doesn't sound as if they are copycatting another artist, even though they have their influences of course, and they're not ashamed to show them. Just one thing: I see that alot of reviewers here hear some Radiohead in this, while I myself, as a big fan of Radiohead, don't hear it. If you like Radiohead, there's quite a big chance you'll like this too I guess, but I can't compare both bands.



Key tracks: "Sailing By Night", "Romeo-Goth", "Rex Snorted Coke", "On Glaze", "Horse Your Ride", "Forty Dollar Rug", "Origin Of Love", "Family Romance". I know that are almost all the songs, but I can't help it, they all represent the album in their own way, I really can't spot any bad tracks.



2006 went off with a smashing start for me."

Innovative hardly begins to describe this album...

Matthew Brown | St. Augustine, FL USA | 11/29/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"but it's the best word for it, if you only have to choose one. Imagine if Radiohead wrote a half-instrumental album with such stone-cold beats that you could guarantee they'd be showing up in hip-hop samples for the next 20 years. That just begins to describe this amazing piece of music."