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Fleeting Joys - Despondent Transponder
- The first reaction of anyone listening to the latest release of Fleeting Joys might be surprise after learning that it is not a new My Bloody Valentine album. It’s true, they do borrow quite heavily from My Bloody Valentine’s “shoegaze” sound – the dreamy, ethereal male-female vocals, the droning, trancelike beat, the loud, multi-layered guitar, but no one ever said that was a bad thing. My Bloody Valentine hasn’t made a new album since 1991’s shoegaze-standard “Loveless,” so think of Fleeting Joys as a continuation of that sound.
This album has no shortage of glorious noise, following the MBV lesson of “the louder the better,” and the multi-layered guitars soar into a climax of noise. Being loud doesn’t mean not being melodic, however. The songs are beautiful to listen to, in particular the almost angelic quality to the female voice, and droning instrumentation which has a simultaneous order and chaos to it. This kind of music often does not lend itself to important lyrics, as the instrumentation takes precedence, and rather the vocals become another instrument in themselves. This manages to convey emotion without really knowing what is being said, rather the music floods with emotion and feeling. While Fleeting Joys may not be labeled as great innovators, “Despondent Transponder” is a beautiful, soaring addition to the shoegaze canon. Not reinventing, but taking something great and making more of it.
Reviewer: Nick DeSimone
new
Reviewer's Rating: 9
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0
Added: 13-Jul-2009
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