Electricity In Our Homes - Dear Shareholder Album Review
It gets a little samey in places, a touch repetitive and the influences shadow over strongly but all in all a good debut.
rating: 3
Electricity In Our Homes have been doing the rounds since their formation back in 2007, no doubt steadily supplying their own homes with a spot leccy, but with the main ambition to get some their own home brand of Electricity into some of our homes. You may think that five years is a long time, but this clearly a band in it for the long con, not the big quick buck. That five years has been spent on touring and crafting their sound, not just at home but in dear ol Blighty, but in Europe too. In this process theyve started to play alongside acts like Black Lips and The Raveonettes, and gaining fans the likes of which include indie icons Tim Burgess of The Charlatans and Colin Newman from Wire. The former of which even seeing fit to release a couple of their most recent singles on his own O Genesis label. 2012 comes around and were faced with the release of their debut album; the culmination of those five years since formation, crafting and touring. What that journey arrives at is some pretty damn enjoyable songs, that themselves enjoy flickering between 60s garage, psychedelia, disco-punk and C86.
Drumming Around the Room (Part 1) immediately brings to mind Piper at the Gates of Dawn-era Pink Floyd and a touch of the Nuggets compilations. Unusual melodies atop unusual chord progressions carried along by shuffling rhythm. This is abruptly met by the up-tempo psych garage of Oranges which boasts some lovely little vocal harmonies and a hypnotic groove that its scratchy guitars stutter all over. This track too being where we first see that elastic almost disco base that could easily find its way on to a record by The Rapture. Previously released as a single Appletree stands out noticeably as bassist Bonnie takes the lead vocal singing about how she shouldve been swept off her feet this time, over a repetitive but hypnotic groove; like Tomorrow Never Knows with a post-punk bass before some Sgt Pepper's brass pops in to lead the song out. http://youtu.be/nJLCXb7r1Hk The rest of the album rides along between those disco/post-punk clatters and outright psych-garage. As Fast As Lightning being particularly erratic and We Are All Trooping Off in a Big Old Gang sporting a blast of driven garage. Nothing, If Not Lovely manages to fit so much into its 3 minutes and 33 seconds that its another striking highlight. Starting like a retro pop tune it soon gets dark and sinister, and builds tension and pace before it collapses in on itself completely dropping pace and stripping right back, before getting right back up there in intensity. The last few tracks of the album carry on much as it has up until now; including a song about zebras, and the albums finale Play It Over that brings all the hints of Syd Barett that are speckled throughout the album to their natural conclusion. Sounding like it could well a lost track from one of Barretts solo albums; Charles Boyers guitar and vocals most notably, along with the general feel and the melodies. Theres a bonus track too at the end of this that sounds like its been at the brown acid. Discordant and manic, its a nice little hidden gem. All in all weve quite a nice debut here, it gets a little samey in places, a touch repetitive and the influences shadow over strongly, but there are some diamonds in this psychedelic rough, and itll be well worth seeing where they go from here. Elastic bass, disco beat, scratchy guitars, pogo stick mood swings and Syd Barretts kaleidoscopic eyes and ears. Electricity in our Homes will release Dear Shareholder on February 27th.