clor - clor
after one limited ep and a couple of well received singles (aided by some excellently cool videos), comes the proper album. and in case you dont already know, it's a corker. if you have heard the singles then you know what's going on here. concise, well defined pop songs with a nervous twitch which causes songs to steer off into new areas just when you least expect it. but we'll come onto all that later. to start off with the clubbed up clor folks sonically steal and lift from the in vogue late 70's and eighties. combining their love for classic synth pop simplicity with some massive effect driven guitar, all while never loosing sight on the song and the ever present sing-a-long-a-chorus.
so within 45 minutes we a shredded to pieces by the opening trilogy of manic pop thrills, 'good stuff' ,'outlines' and 'love and pain', where synth jitter about in a manner that could instigate a resurgence in that naff robot body popping movement again if we're not careful. however, all nerdy aspirations are cast well and truly into the gutter, once you have heard these songs on headphones, after which, i am sure you will come fall under their collective soul enhancing splendour. after all as they say, 'each of us is special in our own unique ways', it's like will powers all over again. a self help guide set to devo-esque via sparks pop : does life get better than this ?
but what of the rest of the album - well a lot of this has appeared elsewhere, especially if you picked up the bands first ep, but for those lucky few, the band have revisited the tracks and funked em up and sprinkled more 100's and 1000's over the tracks to make them even more appealing.
'hearts on fire' starts off with a certain sense of deja vu and doesn't really make my head spin, well, that is until we get to the fade out section at 4 minutes, where they mutate the track into a full on rave monster. just as the blood pressure gets to an unbearable state, the plug is pulled out. oh, for a 10 minute full on wig out version! to calm things down there is the acoustic 'gifted' (as is the album closer - 'goodbye'), which is all very nice and sweet, but has me shouting 'bring back the machines!!'. 'stuck in a tight spot' is the only sore point, something just doesn't click with this excessively guitar driven beast. luckily this is followed by he album centrepiece, 'dangerzone'. we are warned prior to the track really kicking in that we may start something emotional. too right. this is the ultimate in dark and atmospheric 80's synth pop classics. where a deep resonated guitar twang noise is dragged into the sonics after a minute and just hooks the song well into your psyche, and proves that the band have studied the art of true pop, and demonstrated that they have discovered how to build a track up to a totally glorious conclusion. tension is kept intact throughout the new order styled breakdown and beyond, and only then do they let rip with the full instrumentation of the chorus, the effect is spellbinding and complete.
these extra twists and turns are what keep the album fresh, even after repeated listenings (and i have hammered this album in recent months), just when you thing 'ok got this track', along comes a big change in direction, for example, the guitar power chord @ 2.5 minutes of 'magic touch', or the echoed synths @ 3.5 minutes of 'magic touch', making the ears click back into the groove.
i could go on and on about the abundance of goodness that oozes out of this new shiny pop record, but instead, i will just say that they keep on coming right up until the end. so go buy this, and find your own favourite part.
final conclusion : '45 minutes of guitar driven synth-pop perfection'.
extras : interview, single reviews