Album of the Week
SOMETHING FOR KATE
Echolalia (Murmur/Sony)
A warning to women listening to this album in public: track two, the gorgeously rich 'Three Dimensions', has the potential to cause orgasms. I first noticed this watching Paul sing it live, working that tongue over the "la" in "Echola-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-lia..." It seems so right to me that they used this enchanting word as the title of the album. Because, only half hyperbolically, Echolalia is a beautiful as an orgasm.
Listening to it for the first time I wanted to open the balcony window and yell to the fools on the street that their lives were meaningless without it, but I couldn't move for the tears. I was floored, absolutely. Paul Dempsey, commenting on the song 'Say Something' said "you just wish sometimes that someone would come up to you and bring you to your knees with one sentence, just floor you." It must be hard for the man. To be able to do to others so easily that which he wishes for himself. Something For Kate's previous albums took their time to win me over, whispering to me slowly. Echolalia came up to me and floored me with one sentence; it had me in its thrall from the moment I put it on. I was in love. The rest of the world stopped for the duration of play.
This is a rare achievement. A tribute, perhaps, to the growing power of the band to express themselves, both lyrically and musically. It feels trite to say Echolalia is the sound of a band reaching maturity, but I think it's true. Listening to their three albums together, you can almost hear the band growing up. Elsewhere For 8 Minutes gave us a group in its infancy, full of potential, enthusiasm and energy. Beautiful Sharks took them into adolescence; there was a development on that potential, and a stronger questioning, anger and angst. Echolalia sees the band enter adulthood. Their growing ease of expression helped along by New Orleans based producer Trina Shoemaker (Throwing Muses, Emmylou Harris, Queens of the Stone Age, Sheryl Crow), they have explored new layers of sounds, experimented with new instruments, such as a Hammond organ, and found a deeper affinity with their usual instruments. A lavishly lush production resulting in a crisp but warm sound gives every instrument room to breathe.
The opening track, 'Stunt Show', displays this crispness of sound over soft, floating melodies, every guitar strum audible, and the whole effect is utterly moving, desperately beautiful and ultimately overwhelming. 'Jerry Stand Up' is so exquisite it hurts. A brutally sad study of a life lost in the mechanical corporate identity, it is a gorgeously layered track led by a guitar crescendo, and ending with an eye-opening optimism. The first single, 'Monsters' highlights the warmness of Stephanie Ashworth's bass while building guitar line upon guitar line into an intricate and cohesive album highlight. 'Happy Ending' weaves some intriguing sonar echo-like sounds into the mix. And the closing track, 'White', with its sweet guitar line resting on a rising angelic organ note, feels somewhat ecclesiastical; or to keep with the opening theme of this review, like that lilting cool down after orgasm. Listen for the little electronic twitches, and the vividness of the drums.
The multimedia component of the disc consists of some mini movies capturing the quiet moments in the studio, sound grabs, video postcards from the group in the US and Thailand, a short interview with Trina Shoemaker, and a live performance of 'Whatever You Want'. There's also a slide show of still photographs - mostly abstract studies of colour or shape, a few travel shots and some studio images - and the clip for 'Monsters'.
Something For Kate, and Paul Dempsey in particular, has the rare and precious skill of getting right to the heart of things that matter. Echolalia is an emotional, indescribably beautiful, delicate and moving album. Without question, it is Something For Kate's finest achievement, and easily one of, if not the, the best album releases so far this year.
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