Trembling Blue Stars Alive To Every Smile
Format: CD.
Year Of Release: 2001.
Label: Sub Pop.
TK Mailorder Reference ID: M10595
Approximate release date: October 23, 2001.
Genres: British Bands, Rock/Pop
Price: $12.87 [Out of Stock]
On Sale! (Usual price$14.30)
List price:$14.97
Description: It's beautiful!
Track listing:
1. "Under Lock And Key"
2. "With Every Story"
3. "Haunted Days"
4. "Here All Day"
5. "Until The Dream Gets Broken"
6. "St. Paul's Cathedral At Night"
7. "The Ghost Of An Unkissed Kiss"
8. "Maybe After All"
9. "Ammunition"
10. "Little Gunshots"
11. "Untitled"
listen to all tracks as .m3u playlist
Twee Kitten review of Alive To Every Smile
by Keith Mclachlan
The question is Goth and whether it could possibly be back in vogue? I suppose there have always been outposts of it, even now labels like Cold Meat Industry and Projekt flourish among the likes of Fortunate Hazel but it has also now suddenly re-entered my world. I won't admit to ever being much of a goth in the first place. I dug some Clan of Xymoxx and of course the Cure of 'Pornography' and 'Faith' but never Bauhaus cheekbones or anything silly like that. But earlier this year there was the fantastic Cloudboy album which struck me a bit gothic and now here is the new Trembling Blue Stars plucking the same melodramatic strings. Used to be in the days of the Field Mice and even the early days of Trembling Blue Stars there was an undeniable brightness to the music even as Bob was found waxing liturgical about the tragedies of modern romance. But here with his new big band sound the music seems irretrievably dour and heavy, there are two exceptions, granted, the bouncey 'St. Paul's Cathedral at Night' and the single 'Ghost of an Unkissed Kiss' but mostly the mood is rather maudlin and of the sort of deep longing. And of course it is likely the most beautiful record Bob W has ever written. The band is the key, where in the past it was simply drum machines and guitars and Bob's voice trembling waveringly over top now the songs have depth to counter the emotional starkness, the arrangements are basking in new found musical bounty as harpsichords and real drums and synths and gorgeous female backing vocals and Bob's newly confident vocal stride all battling for your attention. Everything is magical, the songs are all so complete and perfect, it does take me back to 1983 but happy is that journey. Then to the words, they, are likely, still, to be the focus and though he may fight to deny it it does appear that his muse remains the same as while many of these songs don't really approach the subject of her they seem to revolve around the gut reactions inside of Bob concerning her and that love. So he struggles with himself, as protagonist, in many of the songs to move on. It could be true that the words are about a new flame/crush as seems to be documented in the country-ish 'Ammunition' but I would have to sort through his garbage and bank draughts to uncover that sort of information, easier, then, for me to simply insist the boy will never forget the love of his life. That he has chosen to memorialize that, which to him, always represented perfection is a glorious mode of process that has led to sustainment of a view of romance that isn't soundtracked by a Timbaland beat and sold as a sterilized package for the eyes but rather a wide-eyed gaze or even lens as analogue for your own heart.
Previous page
Format: CD.
Year Of Release: 2001.
Label: Sub Pop.
TK Mailorder Reference ID: M10595
Approximate release date: October 23, 2001.
Genres: British Bands, Rock/Pop
Price: $12.87 [Out of Stock]
On Sale! (Usual price
List price:
Description: It's beautiful!
Track listing:
1. "Under Lock And Key"
2. "With Every Story"
3. "Haunted Days"
4. "Here All Day"
5. "Until The Dream Gets Broken"
6. "St. Paul's Cathedral At Night"
7. "The Ghost Of An Unkissed Kiss"
8. "Maybe After All"
9. "Ammunition"
10. "Little Gunshots"
11. "Untitled"
listen to all tracks as .m3u playlist
Twee Kitten review of Alive To Every Smile
by Keith Mclachlan
The question is Goth and whether it could possibly be back in vogue? I suppose there have always been outposts of it, even now labels like Cold Meat Industry and Projekt flourish among the likes of Fortunate Hazel but it has also now suddenly re-entered my world. I won't admit to ever being much of a goth in the first place. I dug some Clan of Xymoxx and of course the Cure of 'Pornography' and 'Faith' but never Bauhaus cheekbones or anything silly like that. But earlier this year there was the fantastic Cloudboy album which struck me a bit gothic and now here is the new Trembling Blue Stars plucking the same melodramatic strings. Used to be in the days of the Field Mice and even the early days of Trembling Blue Stars there was an undeniable brightness to the music even as Bob was found waxing liturgical about the tragedies of modern romance. But here with his new big band sound the music seems irretrievably dour and heavy, there are two exceptions, granted, the bouncey 'St. Paul's Cathedral at Night' and the single 'Ghost of an Unkissed Kiss' but mostly the mood is rather maudlin and of the sort of deep longing. And of course it is likely the most beautiful record Bob W has ever written. The band is the key, where in the past it was simply drum machines and guitars and Bob's voice trembling waveringly over top now the songs have depth to counter the emotional starkness, the arrangements are basking in new found musical bounty as harpsichords and real drums and synths and gorgeous female backing vocals and Bob's newly confident vocal stride all battling for your attention. Everything is magical, the songs are all so complete and perfect, it does take me back to 1983 but happy is that journey. Then to the words, they, are likely, still, to be the focus and though he may fight to deny it it does appear that his muse remains the same as while many of these songs don't really approach the subject of her they seem to revolve around the gut reactions inside of Bob concerning her and that love. So he struggles with himself, as protagonist, in many of the songs to move on. It could be true that the words are about a new flame/crush as seems to be documented in the country-ish 'Ammunition' but I would have to sort through his garbage and bank draughts to uncover that sort of information, easier, then, for me to simply insist the boy will never forget the love of his life. That he has chosen to memorialize that, which to him, always represented perfection is a glorious mode of process that has led to sustainment of a view of romance that isn't soundtracked by a Timbaland beat and sold as a sterilized package for the eyes but rather a wide-eyed gaze or even lens as analogue for your own heart.
Previous page
email: goldfish "at" tweekitten dot com