23

Opens with the passionate '23' and the spell is cast with Kazu providing another magical performance, about how in 23 seconds so much can happen to change a life, and the number 23 chosen because of its enigmatic theories "23 magic, if you change the name of love". Kazu continues the brilliance with 'Dr. Strangeluv' with so many beautiful sounds & vocals...another melodic winner with Amedeo creating the guitar fills. Then emerges the best track (so far) in 'The Dress' with Kazu's strange vocals "Horse loves you when you move with him...people hate you when you're changing"....& the Japanese sounding keyboard backing heightens the atmosphere. Now it's the turn of Amedeo via 'S.W.' and his vocal interpretation reaches Kazu's and is a powerful sound of high emotion. Amedeo follows up with the wonderful 'Spring And By Summer Fall' with its steady urgent drumming (Simone as always doing superb drums). Kazu with 'Silently' probably the most commercial here & reminds a little of Supremes 'Baby Love'. 'Publisher' a gloomy sounding effort with synth dominating "Say what you say, say it like a cat Say it to my face and say what you know everyone says". 'Heroine' a pretty piece which is seemingly about a friend Roland committing suicide. 'Top Ranking' "I take my ceder to where the mountain is high" as Kazu takes us up there via beautiful sounds, a catchy refrain & is apparently about the horrors of the Vietnam war (yes this is not party music). Final track is the weird 'My Impure Hair' which is perhaps the weakest here.. Perhaps not as strong or beautiful as previous LP 'Misery Is A Butterfly' but nevertheless essential & a display of passion brilliance & magic.

Simply beautiful. Go for a Winter's walk around a snow-covered park and you'll get my drift.

Fantastic album, delivered as fast as possible.

To be direct and clear, Blonde Redhead's 7th LP, "23", is exactly at the cross of Emiliana Torrini's "Love In The Time Of Science", Mercury Rev's "All Is Dream" and My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless" (Alan Moulder, engineer for that last record, has mixed two tracks of the present item, and that's saying something). And yes, it's THAT good.I don't wanna quote any song "in particular" (private joke, when you get me...), as each of the ten here are absolute gems. But to fans of the previous two albums, namely "Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons" (2000) and follow-up "Misery Is A Butterfly" (2004, and their 4AD debut), be warned that "23" is a work that might not appeal on first listen. To be more accurate, the production is far less "organic" than Guy Picciotto's job on these masterpieces, as the trio seems to have oriented their sound towards both a much poppier and etherial approach (ranking this LP alongside earlier 4AD releases, like Cocteau Twins's "Treasure"), while also deciding to produce it themselves, to obtain a more hypnotic feel to most of the material featured here.Anyhow, if their first four Lps showcased an obvious Sonic Youth-oriented sound, it took them the last 8 years and an awful lot of time getting their act together to stand, eventually, among American's Alternative Music Scene's best acts at a unique place: a band as much treasured for the universality of their melodies as for the way they find out how best to carve these marvels deep inside our hearts, bodies and souls.A strong contender for album of the year, NO LESS.

Blonde Redhead's breathtaking album combines the sonic intensity of shoegaze pioneers My Bloody Valentine with the dream pop of Cocteau Twins and Lush. Despite the stylistic conceits, they overwhelm the listener with the strength of the songwriting and dazzling, dizzying soundscapes. Like contemporaries Asobi Seksu (check out their stunning single 'Thursday'), they mine a territory between some of the aforementioned bands but somehow create something greater than a sum of their influences.Opener '23' gallops out of the speakers at a white-knuckle velocity, Kazu Makino's vocals soaring and diving in melodic layers over frenetic guitars and heavy-doses of Kevin Shields-style reverb. 'Dr Strangeluv' is gentler, redolent of Cocteau Twins circa 'Heaven or Las Vegas', while the icy, ethereal 'Dress' could from Goldrapp's 'Felt Mountain'. 'SW' is more daringly original, part-Radiohead, part-Sigur Ros, part-M83, it features a male vocal lead, a propulsive breakbeat and weird Sergeant Pepper-style brass arrangements. 'Spring And By Summer Fall' keeps up the ferocious pace with Black Sabbath style vocals in a call and response with guitars echoing the vocal hook.'Silently' is lovely ethereal pop in the mold of Elizabeth Fraser and Kate Bush, while 'Publisher' and 'Heroine' feature vocal manipulations for something more drifting and otherworldly, the latter owing a debt to early Goldfrapp in particular. 'Top Ranking' is more conventionally song orientated, but given bite by a crunching, rolling beat and other sonic emphemera. 'My Impure Hair' is underpinned by a wonderfullly discordant country tinge, a somnabulant merry-go-round finale.The album is packed with ideas but never feels top heavy, blurring all the studio trickery into its technicolour swirl. One of the albums of the year; if you like this you might like M83's 'Lost Cities, Read Seas and Lost Ghosts', Asobi Seksu, Cocteau Twins, Goldfrapp and My Bloody Valentine, or even the Lost in Translation soundtrack.