At first I was thinking it was just exercise is raiding the Arcade Fire’s patent; (you know, slightly pompous flourishes and use of far too many diverse instruments, oh and that feeling that things even at their most passionate are never far away from being, well… academic)…
Foreign Born – Person to Person
www.myspace.com/foreignborn http://www.konkurrent.nl/ http://www.secretlycanadian.com/
A very clever record this and a definite slow burner, not least because of the fact that the best tracks are tucked away towards the end. At first I was thinking it was just exercise is raiding the Arcade Fire’s patent; (you know, slightly pompous flourishes and use of far too many diverse instruments, oh and that feeling that things even at their most passionate are never far away from being, well… academic), but once you get to the fabulous Early Warnings, things relax a bit and the songs gain some space and show their muscle.
That’s not to say that tracks like Blood Oranges or Winter Games are bad per se, they’re perfectly fine, but they lack that bit of character, or otherness, which is the secret of all great guitar rock. It ain’t what you do and all that…
Let’s concentrate on the good bits. Early Warnings lives up to its name as harbinger of what is to come on this record; with a glorious use of Hi Life guitar and a beautifully melancholy refrain that is (as with all great pop) slightly familiar. The hooks come out in force for the irrepressible Can’t Keep Time, which is a fabulous pop song nodding it’s head to New York ’67 and Liverpool ‘79 in equal measure: (always the best mix in my humble opinion). That salty Liverpool vibe is most noticeable in tracks like See Us Home, Wait in this Chair and Lion’s Share, (which all seem to have escaped from Lee Maver’s desk drawer)… It Grew on You is a sublime mix of Associates melancholy and a dash of something very similar to George Harrison’s Long Long Long…
Top pop, brimful of character and presence.
Words: Richard Foster