Record Exchange, round 1!

Record exchange? Whaddat?! Well, me and my good friend Dushkin decided to start something we call a record exchange, we send each other a record every week for a review.

The record for this week is La Folie, by The Stranglers

I give the record a spin, and the first song to enter my ears is "Non Stop"..

I'm met by a synthesizer playing a playful melody.. the vocalist starts singing.. in a not so ambitious tone, much like post-punk, Interpol, but he doesn't have the melancholy tone of post-punk.. the guitar and bass dances across the synthesizer like two people ice skating.

Next up is "Everybody Loves You When You're Dead".. the bassline has a touch of funk, and disco, but settles in what is usually associated with post-punk, with some interesting breaks. The guitar adds to the melody in a subtle way, the synth provides some ambience and melody.. the lyrics are.. very sad..

"Tramp"'s lyrics are just like in the two previous songs quite melancholy, dark.. the bass is quite dominant, along with the synth, the guitar is yet again subtle, adding sparkles of pop together with the drums and synth, the bass keeping it dark and heavy..

The song in line is "Let Me Introduce You To The Family".. it has a slightly more cheerful lyrical composure, I find it very interesting how they manage to make a song with some very pop and cheerful elements, while still keeping that strong melancholy over and undertone to it..

In "Ain't Nothin' To It" the synth has an almost eerie melody going.. the lyrics makes little sense to me.. the song could've been taken from a video game boss fight..

"The Man They Love To Hate" has that same boss fight feeling around it.. the intro building up an eerie feeling of pending doom.. it has some interesting sprinkles of disco in some of it's passages.

The next song, "Pin Up" has some disco influences, but it still manages to keep that melancholy feeling.. heh.. The Stranglers seem to be good with that kind of stuff.

"It Only Takes Two To Tango" has this quite annoying synth play, quite frankly the whole song is fairly annoying..

"Golden Brown" has a melody, slightly easier on the ears. And this would be the first song on the record where the vocalist actually does sing, rather than talk, still as monotonous as ever, post-punk style.. yet there's something about this song I like.. the lyrics are about a woman.. and the sea, and the melody has that good ol' pirate film kind of rythm, just a bit more gentle.

The tune "How To Find True Love And Happiness In The Present Day" has a slight R n' B/rap touch, but the melancholy rock which has surrounded the record is still the major chord in this one..

"La Folie", the title track, introduces with an ambient melody, it's fairly peaceful, until the monotonous singer starts singing.. in French! I don't understand jack shit.. but the song seems to rely heavily on the synth. With some playful dots in the otherwise very calm melody it's a fairly nice song to listen to.

The final song of the record is "Cruel Garden" and leads with some really interesting guitar play, unlike anything else seen on the record which has been very bass/synth centered. I like it.. despite it's dark lyrics, it's melody really gets the groove on, yea!

Summary

What characterizes this album seems to be a person experiencing a variety of sad events, not really aware of where he is at the moment, trying to describe them in very metaphorical ways, never really touching the subject directly..

The eerie post-punk influences meeting pop on this record isn't something I'd usually have my ears digest, it's pulled off quite nicely, playing pop/rock while keeping the said eerie, dark feeling.

The drummer, if there is one, is really quite boring, not always a bad thing, but he doesn't really add any spice to this record.

The guitar on this record is often acting like those pink polka dots on the black surface.. never really doing anything major to it, other than in the last song, "Cruel Garden", where it has a more dominant position.

The bass guitarist does his best to keep the mood dark enough.. sometimes pulling interesting breaks from his melody..

The singer has a very monotonous voice, often speaking rather than singing, much like the MC in hip hop, just that you have to replace the hip hop with post punk in this case...

For the, at least to me, very original way of blending something cheerful with something oh so dreadful, it earns some extra points, but it's too far from the waters I make harbor in to earn a high score in my ears, thus, I'll give it the following score..

Score: 4.8/10