This is a great pop record that doesn't want to be a pop record.
City Centre Offices
Xela has crafted what is for me, the year's first magnificent popalbum. "Softness of Senses" opens the record with an absolutely sublimestrumming guitar riff that leads into some simple guitar melodies,whisps of synth and deep bass notes. It's a perfect start to an albumthat has quickly become one of my favorites in recent memory. Well,it's almost perfect. By the time I was halfway through thebeautifully melancholy "You Are In The Stars" I started to wonder whatwas missing. It's an absolutely intoxicating record of superb melodies,textbook pop song structures, and just the right amount of tweakedback-end to throw the whole mix into another world, but by the time Igot to track five, "Through Crimson Clouds," the experience was feelingincomplete. It was like one of the channels of the stereo mix was justmissing: a huge gaping whole in the middle of one of the best poprecords I've heard in a long, long time. And then it hit me. In JohnXela's quest to make the perfect pop record (dedicated to Monika), heforgot to get anyone to sing on it! To be fair, there's a repeatingphrase drenched in reverb on "Drawing Pictures of Girls," but that'snot enough to do the rest of these arrangements justice. These songsare so tight, I can hear the words that should be there in myhead every time I give it a spin, but try as I might, I can't find thevocals because there aren't any. I'm not one who's stuck onvocal-driven music; most of what I listen to is instrumental in fact.But with a record of this depth—the kind of record 4AD used to put outwhen anyone gave a damn, the kind of record that gets jaded ex-popmusic fans to put down the laptop glitch and listen to something thatbelongs on a mixtape of love songs—there's just got to be someonesinging on it. These songs demand a voice, and not just thetonally-challenged voice I add when I'm listening in the car. JohnXela, if you are reading this, go find yourself a singer. Toni Halidayisn't doing much these days, is she? Surely there's some way toreconcile this because a finer pop record isn't bound to come aroundthis year, but this one isn't finished.
Xela has crafted what is for me, the year's first magnificent popalbum. "Softness of Senses" opens the record with an absolutely sublimestrumming guitar riff that leads into some simple guitar melodies,whisps of synth and deep bass notes. It's a perfect start to an albumthat has quickly become one of my favorites in recent memory. Well,it's almost perfect. By the time I was halfway through thebeautifully melancholy "You Are In The Stars" I started to wonder whatwas missing. It's an absolutely intoxicating record of superb melodies,textbook pop song structures, and just the right amount of tweakedback-end to throw the whole mix into another world, but by the time Igot to track five, "Through Crimson Clouds," the experience was feelingincomplete. It was like one of the channels of the stereo mix was justmissing: a huge gaping whole in the middle of one of the best poprecords I've heard in a long, long time. And then it hit me. In JohnXela's quest to make the perfect pop record (dedicated to Monika), heforgot to get anyone to sing on it! To be fair, there's a repeatingphrase drenched in reverb on "Drawing Pictures of Girls," but that'snot enough to do the rest of these arrangements justice. These songsare so tight, I can hear the words that should be there in myhead every time I give it a spin, but try as I might, I can't find thevocals because there aren't any. I'm not one who's stuck onvocal-driven music; most of what I listen to is instrumental in fact.But with a record of this depth—the kind of record 4AD used to put outwhen anyone gave a damn, the kind of record that gets jaded ex-popmusic fans to put down the laptop glitch and listen to something thatbelongs on a mixtape of love songs—there's just got to be someonesinging on it. These songs demand a voice, and not just thetonally-challenged voice I add when I'm listening in the car. JohnXela, if you are reading this, go find yourself a singer. Toni Halidayisn't doing much these days, is she? Surely there's some way toreconcile this because a finer pop record isn't bound to come aroundthis year, but this one isn't finished. samples:
