Kranky
The slippery and secretiveinsertion of sounds recalls the allure of film noir, smoky environmentsspattered with characters whose lives are too dark to relate in any wayother than knowing glances and sunken faces. The energy found in songslike "My New Youth" is bright and spastic, with guitars and keyboardswailing to the frantic pulse of a drummer who has just learned how totreat his feet and hands as separate entities. The soul beyond all ofthese songs speaks volumes about how this record feels: it's afree-for-all combining libido and force with silky curves, jarringjuxtapositions, and the seedy feeling of walking through a red-lightdistrict. Listening to "Classic Mode," I was quite sure that I wasgoing to be in for the electronic pop record of my life; Owens' singingis stunning when supported by this sort of wind-swept percussion andsparkling string work. This song is worth the album alone, but Nudgerefuse to stay still, never giving in to their own charms and lettingthe life of the instruments move them instead of the opposite. It'shard to imagine any of these melodies being any different than theyare, their force and persuasion is perfect in almost every aspect. Iremember hearing that electronic music can't have any soul and that, attimes, it was too robotic to be anything close to human. I know thisalbum isn't entirely electronic, but the band's use of electronictrickery is so well applied to the entire album that Cached feels like a living testament that any such statement can't possibly be true.samples:
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