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Review Summary: "So you think electronic pop music is boring?" Pop music has a tendency for monotony and lack of innovation, especially those which circulates within demeaning sales figures. EDM has taken the centre stage as of late and in doing so has produced arguably some of the most bland tracks within the genre. It's no shock because this is the nature of chart music, so one wouldn't expect anything more or anything less. However, chart history has provided some oddities, where an artist achieves a top 40 hit that is genuinely interesting and sonically different to the others fighting for that Top 40 accolade. We've seen it before with Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker", which miraculously landed itself on the 16th spot by using sampled orgasms. Whilst this is almost entirely unlikely to happen again, at least it was something different.
Enter Clean Bandit, a classically trained quartet from the depths of Cambridge University. The classical genre itself isn't enough for them; they incorporate genres of house and other forms of electronica to act as a base but maintain a strong classical influence glazed atop pop structures that template throughout.
The mere thought of any attempt to combine these genres would be challenging to sound cohesive as well as complimentary with one another. This album's strength lies in its vibrant variety between all of its songs. Each song ends up sounding different from one another, which creates a couple of some very surprising and interesting stylistic inputs. Despite the likeliness of this sounding like a disaster, Clean Bandit do actually pull it off well, but only to a varying degree.
Unsurprisingly, the better songs on this album are the ones which find a nice balance between the predominantly electronic backing and the classical layers. This is exemplified on a song like "Dust Clears" with its cold electronics and autotune that is followed by a warm and vibrant string section during the chorus that brings some nice contrast to the song. "A + E" and "Come Over" are in similar vein, only incorporating more of an upbeat tone. The latter includes a strong and catchy reggae section from Stylo G as strings dance around and over his vocals. Easily some of the most enjoyable tracks on the album.
This charming balance of styles isn't found everywhere on the album sadly, which could leave anyone wanting after listening to those tracks. Some tracks are uninspired and lazy to properly mix sounds together and end up sounding like the standard run of the mill synth pop/house pop songs. "Heart on Fire" is especially guilty of this, with its one dimensional sound and bland hook; a relatively common trend with this album. Other tracks like "Telophone" and "Mozart's House" treat the classical elements like samples, which doesn't truly fuse well with the song in this context, making it sound rather cheap and rushed.
Overall, New Eyes seems represents Clean Bandit still trying to capture their sound. However, their attempt ultimately involved them throwing together an album that resembles a mix tape. Variety in this is encouraging, but when it boils down to it, the songs are split into well balanced, the awkward and the down right cringeworthy. Despite this, a band trying to inject something different and innovative into their chart consuming demograph is promising nonetheless. I expect that Clean Bandit will build upon the well received ideas put forward in this but until then, we should discard the worthless tracks and pretend that this is the pop album of 2014.
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Album Rating: 4.0
Tried out a different style of review to this, so any feedback and constructive criticism would really be appreciated.
Stream "Come Over" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU1KbJbrB2k
"bra-pa-pum"
| | | Album Rating: 3.6
yeah album rules, will read review in a sec. reviewed this for another site I write for otherwise I'd be all over this here
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
This surprisingly didn't get much attention that I thought it would here. Seems like the perfect sputnik pop album
mixing pop with some relative experimentation but I digress. Glad you liked it mate, gonna pick up a physical copy
soon. Also love to here your opinion on the actual review. I'm well aware I could do with some improvements to
technique but you know.
Trial and error
| | | Album Rating: 3.6
"Pop music has a tendency for monotony and lack of innovation" SHOTS FIRED (read: JT's 20/20 pt. 1, Michael Jackson, all of Timbaland's work in general, Bey, et al.)
That said, I def agree that the whole wave of "EDM" big-room and pop-house really isn't very helpful for pushing the scene forward, and I think that's more what you're referencing here. As much as "Take Me Home" is an absolute jam, it (and others like it) isn't really doing anything for the scene. One thing I would say is that I'm not really sure where you're making the argument that Clean Bandit aren't standard pop. The intro talks a lot about where pop fails and brings up a kind of irrelevant counterpoint in Aphex Twin (btw I think it's "Windowlicker" not "Winderlicker" but I may be wrong) then goes on to talk about Clean Bandit's sound, which is pretty dissimilar to most of the music you mention in paragraph 1.
Otherwise, this is a pretty solid review. I might run it through a word-processor to check for typos (I see an "albums strengths" somewhere missing an apostrophe), but otherwise it's pretty nice. I personally think the whole "classical-electronical fusional!" bit is kind of bullshit but Clean Bandit succeeds really well when they incorporate the strings as sort of a synthesizer alternative (i.e. when they're not the focus and used in a total pop context instead of classically-styled). Like, my god, "Rather Be" is easily one of the best songs of the year, and "Extraordinary" isn't far behind it. SO GOOD
I just wish they'd cut some of the tracks. Like you pointed out, there's a mix of the good, the bad, and the ugly here, and the good stuff could make an amazing EP. It's just that the album kind of dilutes everything (plus, the string interlude on "Mozart's House"? Blech). One thing I will point out is that you imply that using samples in music can sound "cheap." In this case, I definitely agree, but before you write off all samples check out DJ Shadow - Endtroducing..... because it's a bona-fide classic and was the album that pretty much single-handedly legitimized sampling as an art form. Robertson has a sweet review of the album that's a quick read (two paragraphs) and it's absolutely worth a listen.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Ahh cheers bro, much obliged. I wrote this over the course of a week during revision break whilst having this as my soundtrack, so i probably lost some of my train of thought and it's disjointed in my points as a result. And yeah, thanks, didn't notice those errors such as "Windowlicker"
Oh I'm actually a huge fan of Trip Hop and I love samples within that like Massive Attack and RJD2 but I was trying to make the point that in the context of these songs, they sound kinda tacky. Will fix that at some point
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Thanks man. Yeah, it definitely had some awfully boring tracks, which sounded nothing like the sound of the songs they've put out as singles. The title track doesn't even have their signature strings on it I think, but it's encouraging overall and I'm keen to see what they do next
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man i love rihanna
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Come Over is one of the better ones on this.
Grace isn't that bad, just kinda average
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Agreed but then it dragged during the last third.
Well she's not exactly hideous to look at!
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man i was just trying to make a funny because jess glynne 100% sounds like rihanna on rather be didn't even know there's an actual track titled rihanna man this is awkward
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Lol it's a B-side on Dust Clears EP but glad to know you like it, tree ;)
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Similar Bands: Disclosure
they fucking made it!!!
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
I don't get it...
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
pfff, those curves, Mall, those curves.
Disclosure and Clean bandit both have a couple of really good songs but that's just about it really
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
u can't handle hur mediocreness. b jely.
looking forward to see what both bands can do in the future
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man why does nearly every band profile here has to look like shit
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
TELL ME THAT YOU WANT MEEEEEYYYY
Yes I have, Mall.
Dust Clears is so good that I was proper hyped when i heard that but this was just bad in comparison. 3.5 was too much
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
I've only heard the singles but I remember Right Here being pretty cool. Will listen then
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
You're making me want to revisit Take That now.
Katy on a Mission was great and I don't think I was too fond of foxxes
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Mind you, my taste has outgrown that stuff so much since but I go back to it every now and then.
Let It Go sucks and is overplayed... It's all about Counting Stars!
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