Not a dry eye...
Matthew F Desmond | Toledo, OH United States | 04/08/2002
(3 out of 5 stars)
"A silly but endearing little record. Forlorn little love songs dripping with regret and sugary keyboards. The sort of thing I'd listen to once or twice and shelve, except that it has maybe my favorite song I've heard in the last six months or so. "The Ghost of an Unkissed Kiss," ludicrous title and all, is an instant classic in my book, and I'll be putting it on mix tapes for years to come. (Long after we'll have forgotten what actual 'tapes' were.)...this song has not one or two but THREE hooks any songwriter would die for, and a deliciously lovelorn lyric straight out of a sixteen year old's diary. And he MEANS it. Awesome."
Mourning the Death of Love
WrtnWrd | Northridge, CA USA | 01/20/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Once the home of grunge, Sub Pop is now the domicile of fey. Saint Etienne, Damon and Naomi, Looper, yet none moreso than Trembling Blue Stars. Robert Wrattens' post-Field Mice group began as a poisoned pen letter to his ex, Annemari Davies. On their fourth, Alive to Every Smile, the pen is still dipped in arsenic, the music a sinewy variation of that gentle indie sound. Influences range from The Cure in high drone ("With Every Step"), lyrical Velvet Underground ("Until the Dream Gets Broken"), a Pet Shop Boys mid-tempo reverie ("St. Paul's Cathedral at Night"), even a smattering of rock and roll ("The Ghost of an Unkissed Kiss"). Filled with invective, regret, anger, languor, ATES, like its predecessors, mourns the death of love - perhaps a particular one, but more and more it seems Wratten's metaphor (like prime Go-Betweens) and his cage. On ATEM, it's a pretty place to ponder as the rest of the world goes by."
Track Listings (10) - Disc #1
