Review Summary: Full of filler, though the stand out tracks still make you listen over and over.
Something For Kate, a band that is well recognised down under, and overly praised by some listeners, (re: Doug Belfast), are hardly known elsewhere, though this double disc effort was made to try and change that.
Echolalia, named after the mental disorder that lets people express in a form of constant mimicking doesn’t sum up this album quite right. Though as it is a double disc effort, there is a lot of filler.
The first disc features a majority of the highlight tracks, one of them being ‘Monsters,’ which was quite successful here in Aus, with its sweeping verses and quite light weight chorus. And lyrically Paul Dempsey is once again at his phenomenal best:
I was hiding away under water
Waiting for distance and buying some time
Trying to be two hundred thousand years younger
So i could excuse myself from humankind
'Cause i don't want to be a container
Or a bastard with a ten page disclaimer
But these monsters spin me around
Get me down, just try and shut me out
The early parts of the record gives as a slickly produced sound that could probably sound a lot better live, though is glossed with studio perfection. As the record roles on we come to ‘Feeding The Birds and Hoping for Something in Return’ which begins with a march like drum beat, before the gloriously voiced Paul Dempsey directs the pattern in a different direction with his guitar work. ‘Twenty Years’ is probably the best song on the first disc with a very pop heavy feel, though it has a more rushed tempo, giving it a spine tingled feeling and a sense of urgency.
The second disc is full of live versions of the first disc, as well as some re recorded older material and is a bit scratchy in sections. While the live versions of some tracks are quite spectacular, it doesn’t have the nice coherent flow that the first disc does. While the album has some amazing standout tracks, like ‘Monsters’ ‘Twenty Years’ the fast paced ‘Say Something’ and odd ‘Feeding The Birds and Hoping for Something in Return’ it is plagued with filler, which is unfortunate since some of the good tracks are up there with Something For Kate’s best.
On
Echolalia Something For Kate are gasping for a wider playing arena, and have had some success with ‘Monsters’ but unfortunately it has probably come out as the bands weakest release to date. While the album is slickly produced, it doesn’t seem quite full enough, or it’s missing something vital, though it is a Something For Kate album, so whatever the lows may be, there are still a lot of highs.
