Early 90s grungefest? Post-late 80s alternative dreariness? Proto-mid 90s alt-punk? The only thing I'm sure of going in, with a name that white, I'm guessing this is not a gangsta rap group.
So I was sorta right about the post-late 80s dreariness, though it's more complex than that. "Chocolate Cake" actually makes me think of Madness and their brand of second-wave ska. But it also kinda sorta feels like a low-fi early version of Scissor Sisters. It's definitely somewhere between alternative rock and indie rock (ick). That's just one song, and it's complex enough to give me hope that Crowded House will be interesting.
"It's Only Natural" sounds like it was recorded live in concert, and now I'm not sure if I'm listening to the studio version of the album or a bootleg version that someone compiled from whatever recordings they could get of the songs on the album. Now I need to double-check that before I can properly judge Woodface. (checking...) Looks like that's exactly what was up. OK, so I need to find a real copy of Woodface before I continue. Stand by...
...
So several months later and I'm catching up with Woodface thanks to Spotify. Everything above still stands, Crowded House is a very complex and dense band. Unlike what I heard before on youtube Crowded House is definitely not low-fi. Actually for an early 90s band I'm pretty impressed how modern the album sounds. I'm used to 1991 albums having a certain amount of washed-out hollow 80s-ness, unless it's a grunge album, which Woodface definitely is not.
It's not really define-able at all really. It's pretty laid back, inoffensive enough I guess, perfect for just kinda playing in the background. I can't really say that much about it good or bad. It played, I didn't really react to it negatively or positively, but I appreciate the effort the band went to creating it. So... 3 stars? Sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment