I
got this record on tape 3 month’s before the official release, so you can tell
that I was really happy about that. I’ve been playing this record for 3 weeks
straight after I got it, and even now (in November 2001) it’s in my
cassette-player very often. No wonder why, since this album, the follow-up to
their amazing Tooth & Nail-debut “Understand This Is A Dream” is another
master-piece of this band, that quickly became one of my favorite bands. They
released
2 split-cd’s on other labels, which was okay, but this band is really
destined to release a full-length-album, because this album has some kind of
“concept”, just like the first album. Again, they focus on Emotion, as they
see a lot of fake-emotions in today’s pop-culture. Emotion Is Dead, but on
this album it’s alive like never before. This album just grabs the
listener’s attention with difficult yet catchy song-structures, based on both
acoustic and electric guitars. Other important elements, showing the band’s
change in musical approach, are a sampler and some keyboards. Some songs are
almost drum&bass / triphop, while rock-music is still the base for this
band.
Just like the Get-Up-Kids they’re more experimental now, and I consider this as a good thing, since it’s really improving the sound of these bands. How experimental and mystical this album might be, I think it’s still clean and commercial enough to get a lot of props from the so-called “music press” and they truly deserve the attention of more listeners (outside the emo / hardcore-scene), because this stuff is so intense, pure and artificial that it can’t be neglected. Anyway, this album really enlightened the fall of 1999 for me and I’m sure it will return to my cd-player very often, at least the next ten years. I just adore this band and I’m dreaming about seeing this band live…
<<Do you understand... the dream is over>>
Karel
Smouter