Having only heard their hits ‘Hide U’ and ‘Hungry’ in the past, I was fully prepared to dismiss Kosheen’s new album as cack for clubbers. Perhaps as well I didn’t, not least of all because Sian Evans is someone I’d not want to cross.
I’m sure she’s a perfectly affable woman in person, but listening to ‘Solitude’ sends a shiver down the spine. It’s not just the cold, clinical synths and spacious production that lower the temperature. There’s a harshness about Sian’s vocals, and while on the one hand they do sit well with the stark, glacial synths, there are times when the prevailing atmosphere is one of sterility. When she sings ‘save your tears for another day’ on the opening track, ‘Save Your Tears’ it doesn’t so much sound like she’ ssaving herself heartache by creating emotional distance as much as she has no emotions to distance herself from. On ‘Poison’ she sounds borderline insane, and all the scarier for it, proving to be one of the album’s definite highlights.
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There are some nice dislocated, spacious electro-pop moments, such as the bleak and minimal ‘Divided’, but again, Evans sounds harsh when she addresses a ‘silly girl’ whom she orders to ‘hold your tongue and only speak when you are spoken to’. ‘Up In Flames’ is dark, tense and hauntingly claustrophobic; single ‘Harder They Fall’ is brusque and brittle, and ‘745’ shudders and judders mechanically. ‘Observation’, is less effective, a sparse drum ‘n’ bass piece that feels a shade formulaic, and ‘I’ is minimal in the extreme, a metallic snare sound dominating the emptiness. The title track which closes the set is downbeat and low-key with an almost Ketamine trip-hop feel, temporarily slowing time and keeping the temperature icy right to the end.
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