October 28, 2003
Colin Blunstone
title:: One Year label:: Sony
The end of The Zombies was a strange time, the band having broken up prior to their huge hit in the states with Time of the Season in 1969. Like many Brits, Colin Blunstone took awhile to follow-up that smash hit, taking a full year to record his first solo album One Year. In between The Zombies and his first solo album, Colin had worked at an insurance company as well as releasing a few single under the name Neil MacArthur.
All of this did not make One Year that far removed from the late Zombies sound, in fact One Year sounds like what The Zombies may have sounded like if they had stayed together in 1971. There's a sparse, elegant sound to Colin's first album, and really it is a masterpiece of the time period, holding up extremely well.
Colder
title:: Again label:: Output Recordings
Colder's Again is Marc Nguyen Tan's first album, coming out on the excellent Output Recordings label. Often times a first album is so highly anticipated, it's hard to live up to the hype, but thankfully Colder work magic here.
Combining together influences like Joy Division (the Heart and Soul type sound), the On U Sound dub sound, 1970s krautrocker's Can (with Damo Suzuki-like vocals) and a hint of Serge Gainsbourg curiosity (Colder are also French), Again works wonders as a downtempo balm. Even though Again doesn't try and break any new ground, they certainly know what how to cull their influences together into a fine batch of songs, leaving us hope for much growth. There is also the added bonus of a DVD with videos for 6 songs, I think all cds should have DVDs in them these days.
Zoot Woman
title:: Zoot Woman label:: Wall of Sound
Anyone looking to find reasons to knock 'Zoot Woman' will easily find all the ammo they need. The disc was very expensive here in the US, the length of the disc is short (39 minutes), and there are a few tracks that may remind you of male artists from the 80s that you never listened to and can't quite remember the names of, like the guy who fronted Bad English.
But 6 of the 10 tracks are winners in my book. I really like this record a bunch.
