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Album Review
by SashaS
22-5-2002
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| Dot Allison's 'We Are Science' |
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Dot Allison: 'We Are Science'
(Mantra)
Dot Allison on emotional life and decline of ‘pink-robots’
In a word of an alliteration, life is about fashion, food, football and f**king… crap, all around. But, there are moments – that make living meaningful – as great as ace shag, a good snort or a pop song that awakens carnality in both sexes equally and drives them to do the love-thang. That’s what Dido might be doing to the tune of ten million copies but there is more to Dot Allison’s ‘We Are Science’, designated for all the ‘pink-robots’.
Otherwise, if you are a happy chart-bunny, you’ll find her music a bit on an acquired taste, on the refined end of pop scale. This is a serious domain, the enigmatic side of humanity, dreaminess-gone-bitter… Sprinkled with catchy, pop elements that are far above the obvious chaff the market is busy flogging now. An elegantly detached life’s vision for persons who might be only happy when it rains.
‘Science’ is a darker offering than her debut, ‘Afterglow’, which is strange as the morphine-induced haze she endured in hospital for four months following a car crash inspired the previous disc. Well, misery loves company and there is a balance of ingredients: musical programming perfectly accompanies her ice-maiden delivery that keeps Allison at a distance that makes her more attractive.
With the funky opener ‘We’re Only Science’ we are taken onto an atmospheric soundscape that resonates with beats and effects to create an illusion of floating in space. The same jiggy-up is evoked in ‘Substance’ with its insistent rhythm that almost overwhelms the vocal, while ‘Make It Happen’ invites memories of electro-disco-funkdom.
But there are moments of pure serenity, the gorgeous and breathless ‘You Can Be Replaced’ that is like a man-magnet and a wee homage to Garbage, perhaps; totally spaced-out ‘Performance’ feels like the most hauntingly beautiful track since David Bowie’s ‘Warsawa’. Melancholy plays big part in Allison’s work but it is not of the suicidal kind, there is something noble about sentiments she grapples.
There is also acoustic flavour on ‘Wishing Stone’, not dissimilar to Mazzy Starr, echoing with pain as the planet rotates away from the Sun. Unfortunately not everything’s bloomed in the Dot-garden with ‘Strung Out’ and the looped ‘I Think I Love You’ in particular, being not as hypnotic as other cuts. ‘Hex’ and ‘Lover’ recover the ground, the former with a rockier approach and the latter with Allison’s total immersion in (aural) Wonderland.
Dot Allison sets ‘pink-robots’ versus the tyranny of pop-kitsch.
8/10
SashaS
1-5-2002
Dot Allison’s ‘We Are Science’ is released 20 May 2002 on Mantra
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