Review by: Dan Baker
i always know when i’ve just got a great record. after about two listens you can go out for a walk on your own, or go for a drive in your car or the bus or whatever, and the songs from the record start playing themselves in your head. the tape deck and radio in my car is broken, as my mum’s joe cocker tape is stuck init, so either i listen to joe cocker on repeat or nothing and just let songs appear inside me and play to the insides of my ear drums. believe me, this works.
the other day, after listening to it about four times, i tried to do this with the spy versus spy record. i was on a drive across london and was bored with traffic. i realised that i could only remember three of the songs. i didn’t get it. i remember enjoying the record a lot, but the songs didn’t seem that memorable. why?
the answer is quite simple. the songs are a lot lot longer, but they don’t seem to bring an impact with them. they all seem to blend into each other, and they are a lot slower than the songs on their first release.
strangely i really like each song on its own, especially the bouncy ‘red cars go faster’, a song i’ve heard them play live a few times, and the pretty ‘kittyhawk’, but as an album i got bored. the production is great, it’s a lot fuller than their first release, and everything sounds fine in general.i just don’t seem as impressed as i’d hoped, and i have no idea why.
don’t get me wrong, this is a good record, it’s just not as good as i expected. it’s better than joe cocker though.