Search - Kitchens of Distinction :: Strange Free World

14 Years Later, still listening to this!

Mad Dash | Minneapolis, MN | 01/07/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I remember hearing Drive that Fast and thinking, got to get this. Then I heard the whole album and listened to it regularly for years. Recently, my brother bought me an album by a band called Interpol. Damn if this is not the same vocalist, or a darn good admirer. So what did I do? pulled KOD cd's out and listened all over again! How good is this album? When my wife and I went back to Hawaii for our 5th (5 years ago)anniversary, this was one of my 12 cds to come with (I have over 800 cds). Why are they gone! Come back! Please more of this!"

A great wave of gorgeous sound

0=0 | Earth | 04/16/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Geez, it's been over a decade and a half since I purchased this cd! How the time flys by. And with the passing of time I keep returning to "Strange Free World", an album that ages like the finest of wines.



I loved Ride's "Nowhere", Catherine Wheel's "Ferment", MBV's "Loveless", Slowdive's "Just for a Day", and Lush's "Deluxe", but "Strange Free World" by Kitchens of Distinction stands out among the best of the shoegaze set, and is the sadly unedrappreciated leader of the pack, the alpha chief star destroyer, if such a thing exists. Produced by Hugh Jones (some Echo and the Bunnymen), this second K.O.D. release from the year 1991 is gold from beginning to end. Unfortunately, this was a time when all of this great music from the UK was being overshadowed by a dumb stateside genre of music called grunge. Blech. Now, kids are discovering this stuff once again, but still not enough in my opinion. While most of the groups I mentioned earlier were great, their voices tended to get lost in the layers of guitars and effects and the lyrics at times were a bit vague and abstract, which is fine. However, it's refreshing to hear an album that is just as sonically engaging, if not better sounding than the others ("shoegazey" if you will) yet with honest, cohesive, clear lyrics and excellent vocalls pitifully copied by the likes of the vastly overrated Interpol (God, and those annoying clothes and haircuts--come on people!!!). Again, while the atmospheric, shoegaze aspect of the music is very appealing to me, it's those timeless lyrics that bring it home again and again. And, these guys can raise the tempo and rock like none other. Songs like "Gorgeous Love" and "Drive that Fast" are just a couple of the highlights on this unsung classic released during a very exciting time in current music history,and still sound brand new today."