Review Summary: Would make a decent EP
The album Recover is the fifth from New Zealand band ‘The Naked And Famous’.
They are now a duo, featuring Vocalist Alissa Xayalith and guitarist Thom Powers.
The sound on ‘Recover’ is very crisp, high tech and layered, and this music is very much upbeat pop music, with a very slick production. That said, it is a bit sparse, other than the vocals and the beat there is not a lot going on.
The opening song is ‘Recover’... immediately Alissa strikes me as a very good vocalist. Her voice is sweet and her delivery is very sincere - no auto tune required here! This song is quite good, with a lot dubbed in vocals giving a kind of chorus effect, which is not uncommon in a lot of the pop music these days, but here it is working well, along with personal lyrics ‘I can’t replace the loss of my mother, I can’t erase the loss for my father...’ which gives a feeling that this band is quite genuine.
‘Sunseeker’ is another good song, which also benefits from sunny, dubbed in chorus vocals. Then the highlight of this album comes early on in ‘Bury Us’ - this song is just in another gear up from the rest of the pack. The songs lyrics deal with the pain of a relationship breakup, but it’s not just about the pain, more importantly, how you deal with it. Alissa’s vocals are energetic, the chorus is very catchy, a top track!
Things kind of take a slide after that. Firstly, while their subject matter is genuine, relationship problems are something that have often been dealt with in popular song, so the metaphors about personal pain kind of feel cliched after a while; in fact, it gets tiring considering this album breaks the 45 minute mark. They also fail to do anything different with the arrangements, song after song, just bright vocals contrasted against electronic drums and a few rather uninteresting synths, and the occasional apologetic guitar. As the album drags towards its end, it becomes an arduous listen. However, let’s follow the songs.
After ‘Bury Us’, comes ‘Easy’ - as if to change pace, there are male vocals handling this song - why not actually write a melody that doesn’t sound like, you know, the first three songs. Anyway, Thom’s vocals don’t do it for me, he doesn’t bring much charisma or energy to the song. His vocals are a bit dull to put it bluntly. The chorus is good though, the harmonising between Thom and Alyssa works here.
This is followed up with ‘Come as you are’, and when listening to the vocal effects, sped up, it kind of smacks that they are running out of ideas. The song is still alright though. ‘Everybody Knows’ has a punchy chorus, but the melody is much like the opening songs and all the little high tech fills and frills to flesh the songs out are losing interest. It all sounds the same after a while. There is a cute little instrumental called ‘Echoes in the dark’.
At this halfway point the album is kind of respectable, and may make a decent EP, but they drag it on for another 8 songs(!), although ‘Muscle Memory’ is another short instrumental. The second half of the album brings nothing new to the table. The lyrics to ‘Death’ are quite thoughtful, then the chorus to ‘Count on you’ feels heartfelt. Thom singing ‘the sound of my voice’ is a very dull song and the album closes out in very unmemorable fashion with ‘Anaethetic’ and ‘Coming back to me’.
For her part, lead singer Alisa dutiful gives it her all through the whole album, giving each song her utmost feeling and sincerity, but except for a few good songs at the start she is singing rather uninspiring material that slowly grinds to an overdue end. ‘Bury Us’ literally buries the rest of the album, although there are a couple of other decent tracks. 1.5 - 2.0 stars
