Pastels/Tenniscoats – Two Sunsets
I really like both of these bands individually, but as all-time indie arranged marriages go, this superficially perfect match doesn’t quite dunk the biscuit, as far as I am concerned.
It’s fey and wan and awfy, awfy twee but honestly it lacks bite. Imagine a cover of some of Belle & Sebastian’s dreamier material, but without any rhythmic zip, melodic inventiveness or vocal bite. That comparison material is pretty close to the limit in terms of being just a little too breezy for my taste, and this album is a considerable distance the wrong side of that particular boundary.
Before her rather lovely solo debut Amorino, Isobel Campbell wrote and recorded songs under the name of The Gentle Waves, and gentle they most certainly were. So gentle in fact that they generally made no impact whatsoever. This is just the same – there’s just nothing to get hold of or, conversely, nothing which makes any real attempt to get hold of you.
The ambient, loungey atmosphere can also be reminiscent of a heavily diluted version of Stereolab, if you’re looking for comparisons, and the Japanese vocal reinforces this similarity. Again, the comparison does this record no real credit, because even at their most dreamy, Stereolab were never too far away from punctuating your incipient drowsiness with a burst of crackling noise or a shriek of feedback. They also had tunes, however sparingly they used them.
Basically, the recipe seems perfect, but the results somehow lack zest. I can think of a dozen In the Fishtank collaborations which far exceed this in terms of both interest and enjoyment.
Pastels/Tenniscoats – Yomigaeru
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Pastels/Tenniscoats – About You
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The Pastels MySpace | Tenniscoats website | More mp3s | Buy direct from Domino
