Blonde Redhead - 23

Blonde Redhead's seventh album, and their second for 4AD record label, 23 presents kindler and gentler version of the former noise-rock veterans who started out in early nineties with apparent Sonic Youth and no-wave influences. Such transformation already begun on 2000' "Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons" and as the band's album titles have got shorter, so has the Redhead's sound got more stream-lined and accessible. Heck, even more polished as far as production goes. The production of Alan Moulder who has worked with bands such as Depeche Mode and My Bloody Valentine, definitely hints at a sort of a high-gloss, dream pop influenced alterna-rock sound. Former fans of the band might view this direction as commercializing or selling out, but that's a limiting way to judge it. Whether or not this is pop-oriented or not, is not a good way to judge if this record has merit. There are only two types of music: good music and bad. Everything else is just a matter of stylistic variation. Even though this album doesn't surpass the 2004 masterpiece Misery Is A Butterfly, this one has enough strengths to consider it as good music.

The title track may throw off diehard BR fans as a more polished and commercial sound with its drastically compressed piano, a hint at eighties pop. However, if one thinks about it, this composition actually reverses a mainstream tactic that I've always considered rather frustrating. Have you ever heard some mainstream pop song that kicks off with something like an awesome guitar riff, only to descend into a bunch of overproduced slick drivel in a matter of seconds? BR does it backwards, it puts the cheesy sound (compressed piano chords) first and then adds layers of psychedelic guitars and loud, booming drums, making it an exciting rocker and an outstanding dream pop song with heavenly vocals from Kazu Makino. In fact, the first three songs that open the album are all outstanding pieces of polished dream pop, with solid guitar playing, sensual female vocals, swirling spacious sounds along, a great attention to detail and good progressions.

Blonde Redhead has always had a dichotomy between the songs: the ones sung by Kazu (guitar, keyboards), and the others by her partner Amedeo Pace (guitars). Kazu has an ethereal and a sensual voice, brimming with erotic tension and subdued passion. Amedeo's tenor voice however is somewhat bland and at its worst sounds unassertive. He sings three songs on the album. "Spring And By Summer Fall" is his attempt at a rock-out song, but it sounds a bit tacky, as his voice weakens this song somewhat. "Publisher" however is a drab attempt at electronic pop. These two are listenable, but nothing more. Only "SW"(track four on the record) is worthwhile: a more complex and grandiose sounding version of something like "Falling Man" on the previous album, replete with a regal sounding French horn interlude. Other seven songs are all sung by Kazu. Including track six "Silently". This is obviously the most blatantly pop oriented number, a bouncy 80s synth pop/new wave influenced song, and probably one of the first instances where the purveyors of transcendent melancholy (which they perfected on Misery) are playing the kind of song that sounds...happy? It's not bad, just way lightweight compared to the previous fare. The last three songs are again worthwhile, "Heroine" having some vocoderized singing and a melancholic progression, "Top Ranking" sounds a bit like "Melody" from Misery with an electro-samba sort of beat and a happy-go-luckier atmosphere and "My Impure Hair" is a swirling, folky ballad with heart-wrenching Kazu vocals.

This album showcases the band's talent at writing accessible, memorable tunes with layered arrangements. It also has lots of nice guitar work on it. Occasional blandness and lighter fare aside, this is quite solid as polished dream pop goes.