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That's kinda a Cosmicity trademark, actually, the slower, musical pop-song, although he always has at least a few straight-up dance songs. Usually the dancier versions are reserved for the remixes on the singles, though, and songs like "Visionary" and others are turned into exciting dance songs from songs that are generally unclassifiable due to tempos. The CD starts with "Crucify," a song that is eerily Pet Shop Boys-like, not only in the sounds and beats, but the electronically modified speaking voice sounds too much like the "Divided By Zero" to be completely coincidental. Mark's voice is different than Neil's though, certainly not less accomplished (in fact, probably more so) and his silky chords go from fairly high notes (beyond my range, at least) to more familiar baritone and even bass notes, all of which he hits very comfortably. The song, like most Cosmicity songs, features thoughtful lyrics, and a sleepy beat that accentuates the dream-like mood of the song. "Two Month's Salary" features more dream-like qualities, including the soft voice of Mark (he's really into dynamics, actually, which is odd, yet refreshing in pop music.) The beat is strange, overall slow, yet with a frantic pace that punctuates the theme of the lyrics, the nervousness of a guy getting ready to propose (at least I assume so -- two month's salary usually refers to the cost of a diamond engagement ring, although it's never mentioned specifically in the lyrics.) "Obvious" is a more familiar pop slow song format, and features more of the tender love-song types of moods and lyrics that are common on this particular CD, which Mark's dreamlike composition and vocal delivery are especially good at. "Thursday" has a little bit of a different sound; a bit melancholy, yet still embued with the dream-like romanticism that has characterized almost all of the songs here so far. Again, it's slow and tender, although the next song, "The Envelope" has a much more noticably darker sound and theme to it. Even it's still fairly slow and dreamlike, though, as all of the songs have been so far. A more cheerful romantic song, characterizing the giddy joy you feel when you're in love, is "Visionary." Unfortunately, I like some of the MCD versions I've heard a little better than the album version. By the time you get this far on the album, you kinda want the pace to pick up a bit and get moving, before you slip into a dream yourself, and the album version is, at best, mid-tempo. Despite this, it's one of my favorite songs here, definately my favorite so far (I've always associated it with my own wife, of course!) The tender music-box tinkling during the chorus, the vaguely tropical beat and the trademark breathless, dreamy vocals all add up to a classic song, although some of the MCD versions are even better, I think. Finally we do get to the fast songs, dance songs much like you'd hear from an early Erasure or Pet Shop Boys in the form of "Alone" which is also another one of my favorite songs here. The theme is very different -- instead of a love song for his girl, it's a song of loss about the girl who took off. Although Mark's vocal delivery isn't really that different here, it fits the faster songs just as well as the slower ones, and it even has a dreamy tone to it, even though it's faster. For my money, I'd like to have several more songs like this one, and less of the slower tempo songs, but my own tastes toward faster songs is one of my better documented quirks. At least Cosmicity is very good at the slow song. "Your Beautiful Lie" is another fast song with another deviant theme that belies the love songs at the first of the CD, although the album version features some odd vaguely disco-like sounds that serve to dilute the more hard-edged club feel it would otherwise have (again, there are some MCD versions that lack this weird sound; in fact the promotional ADD Megamix features a remix that, while it sounds almost exactly the same, is somehow just a little bit harder edged, which I kinda like.) "Oblivious" is a harder edged dance song, but it doesn't really feature vocals so much as it features samples and tape loop type of songs, again with a very Pet Shop Boys sounding background (including spoken vocals that sound eerily like "West End Girls" which furthers the obvious comparison. To me, the song is a little too long and not terribly exciting. The real gem of the CD, the capstone, if you will, is the title track "Isabella." It is slow -- it hardly even features percussion at all, and it returns to the dreamy lovesong type of song that made up the first half of the CD. However, "Isabella" is by far the best of the songs of this variety in the CD, and coming after a string of faster, harder and darker songs it especially works well. Finally, there is a remix of "Crucify" called the Final Mix, which isn't terribly different from the original, except with slightly more aggressive percussion. Finally, there is an unnamed extra song -- an instrumental that is slow, dreamy and mostly lacking percussion, but which serves to bring the mood full circle for the CD. Overall, the album works on a number of fronts. Mark has great vocal delivery and is a great composer, making most of these songs extremely mood-filled and theme-filled. However, I'm a little bit disappointed in the ratio of slow to fast songs here. The songs I heard of Cosmicity first that I really liked where the faster pop and dance songs. While I wouldn't want everything to be like that (as I said, "Isabella" is a wonderful song; one of the better slow songs I know, as a matter of fact) the long string of slow songs starts to get a little bit tiring during a straight-up listen of the CD. But, since that preference is a personal hang-up of mine, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this CD to anyone who has liked groups like the Pet Shop Boys, or earlier Erasure, which are both very good analogues of what kind of music this is. |