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Album Review
by SaschaS
10-6-2002
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| Shivaree's 'Rough Dreams' |
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Shivaree: 'Rough Dreams'
(Capital)
Shivaree make geographical music without instructions
As packages hit the floor every morning you wonder what surprises has postman delivered, like a child at Christmas, if you are a music lover. Need it be said that it is more than often on the predictable, safe and ultimately disappointing side? But there are, and what would life be without, surprises: you stick a disc in and something magical emits from your speakers, KO’s indifference and hypnotises senses… Such one is Shivaree and their album ‘Rough Dreams’.
French-sounding ‘Wagers’ materialises in like an angel singing through a megaphone, and the surreal setting is uncovered. Noises are initial accompaniment to ‘Gone Too Far’ that grows into a dancey little number via a string section providing big orchestral feel over an irresistible beat… A touch country-ish is ‘After The Prince And The Showgirl’ that is equally as fragile as a butterfly.
‘All Because You Told Me So’ sounds like a show-tune, full of tonal details, fussy, with the vocal Judy Garland would be proud of. ‘Thundercats’ is a noisy rocker, probably the way Courtney Love wanted Hole to sound, immediately balanced by ‘Snake Eyes’, a cabaret number in an industrial zone. Each song is an entity that should be unwrapped many a time and its beauty enjoyed as often as meals.
The supreme quality of Shivaree is the vocal: breathy, coquettish, childish, vampish, clear as lust, it takes you places where your best dreams haven’t. Who ever signed this band, should be given a Merit Award. It is a courageous move that sounds like a revelation and liberation from all the bulls**t and it should be made to chart by a mental health order. Singer Ambrosia Parsley sounds like Alice In Wonderland, the way Stevie Nicks always wanted to.
This is so obviously lovely that you can’t but fall under its spell on the first exposure… Being such a varied artefact you long to get your funky shoes on again for ‘Ten Minutes’, or the acoustic-intimacy of ‘Queen-Sized Tomb’, or the Brecht-Weillish ‘Flycatcher’… Rough dreams? No, this is more like walking in enchanted forest, under abstractly coloured sky, wearing a sonic-perfumed coat…
One of the few realistic things written in their otherwise fictitious biography is – “Just another reminder of the wonders of wisdom (and appropriation!) floating around out there for those who simply PAY ATTENTION.”
There are no restrictions… if you find a gutsy label.
8.3/10
SaschaS
12-6-2002
Shivaree album ‘Rough Dreams’ is released 10 June 2002 on Capital/EMI
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