Search - Lamb :: Fear of Fours

An impressive follow-up

Jewel | Auckland, New Zealand | 07/27/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"'Lamb' burst onto the scene in 1996 when their self-titled album was released. Not only was it a brilliant album, but it establised Lamb (love the name!) as one of the best drum and bass/ trip-hop outfits around today. Their second album 'Fear of Fours' takes a slight departure from the first, with the songs sounding edgier in some instances and the beats more creative. There is a strong jazz-type influence on the album with numerous songs containing old jazz samples, as well as featuring a killer double bass. Vocally, the lead singer Lou sounds more distorted and eerie this time round, which contrasts to the melancholic sound of the first album. Nevertheless, her voice features brilliantly on tracks such as 'B Line', 'Lullaby' and 'Fly'. Argubly the best track on the album is 'B Line', as it incorporates numerous 'sounds' and 'noises' which totally enraptures you into the music. The double bass adds a real sense of sophistication and progression, and the pulsating chorus is simply brilliant. Moreover, this is a most satisifactory second album, and it gets all the more better every time you listen to it."

Blissfully Scenic

Jewel | 11/12/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I suppose I'd consider myself a big trip-hopper. I've got Hoverphonic, Morcheeba, Massive Attack, Portishead, etc. (to name the more popular ones.)And I search Amazon a lot, yet this is the FIRST CD that I truly feel compelled to write a review about. I really really enjoyed Lamb's first CD, mostly because it took deep patience to listen a few times and then I was suddenly struck with the brilliance. The songs seemed to be layered- with only the vocals to unify the chaos. I like "Fear of Fours" even more, and this really surprised me. (Ya know, all that junk about Sophomore attempts and what-not.) Yet this CD is "better" in a sense. It is less chaotic. Not that the intense vocals and background aren't there, it is there but this CD feels more enchanting. It is more up-beat it feels more jungle than trip-hop. (AND I really hate labels..) I think this CD is "Scenic" because when I listen I can feel the music and hear her lyrics (which are rather good, and this fact throws the CD from a mere 4.5 to the 5 stars) but I can "see" the music too. It's as if all of my senses are being bombarded. I wouldn't say that this was any easier to listen to. Similar to their first, I listened a bit distracted. And by the second time through, I heard the talent but wasn't quite sure if it was "A" material. (I grade my CDs, and I'm a pretty tough grader.) Well, several listens later, I assure you, it's an "A". This is not like Portishead. I understand how the comparisons come about, and I really have to disagree. "Portishead on acid" or something seems to be what everyone wants to get at. Lamb is truly original, on their own. Let's reverse it, can Portishead get Lamb comparisons? That seems unfair, and it's unfair because it is simply untrue. Melt with this CD, there is enough intoxicating depth and sultry moods to last several spins later...."

I am not anti lamb

lunaticsoul | Las Vegas, nv United States | 08/12/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I am not anti lamb at all really. Seriously I think the producer of the music has made some decent tracks and some of the vocals do fit well, and from the reviews I do intend to give the first lamb album a try as well, but I find the vocals on quite a few songs to be annoying, and the lyrics to be quite unimaginative as well. The portishead comparisons are in my opinion completly off, It sounds more like Ruby to me with out the evil sexy lyrics. Also The vocals alot of times sound like they where written after the songs, specially in the heavy Drum n bass type tracks. When the stuff comes together correctly Its pretty good music worthy of interestes, but I can't give an album that in my opinion has "horrid" songs anything above an 3, since I like to sit back and be able to listen to something without getting straigh annoyed at a really bad song. *****There is another version with a Bonus disk floating around that doesn't seem to get mentioned very decently here as well it contains some hella great mixes of mostly first album songs, and got me into kruder and dorfmeister, and the global communication mix is godly. Here is the track list.1. B-line (andy votel mix) 2. Gorecki(global communication mix) 3. cottonwoll (filia brazilamix) 4. transfatty acid (kruder and dorfmeister)5. gold (hipoptomistic alchemy mix)"