Here’s The News on Nude: "Cities And Faces" Rocks! (ISYMIYSMY W/O)
Written: May 17 '05 (Updated May 17 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great unique rock sound
Cons: There’s nothing like this in New Zealand
The Bottom Line: Nude is not an essential state for reading. Your choice though…
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| dbcint's Full Review: Cities and Faces - Nude Movies |
CaptainD has called me a "write/off-aholic" on many an occasion. With that in mind, it seemed only fitting that my first music review for 2005 be part of a write/off. Matt provided me the opportunity, with the fifth annual "I’ll show you mine, you show me yours" W/O, the premise being that participants are paired up, and exchange CDs with each other. The twist is that you should give your partner something they probably wouldn’t pick up for themselves. I sent Duane Shihad’s The General Electric, and I get to review "Cities And Faces" by Nude.
To be quite frank, this is certainly NOT an album I would’ve picked up for myself. I can’t – it’s unavailable in New Zealand. There’s a couple of reasons why Nude haven’t broken the New Zealand market yet, but the most logical one to me is that they’re so vastly different from any of the mainstream stuff we do get over here, and there’s no-one in New Zealand making this kind of music. I simply can’t understand why, because if ”Cities And Faces” is anything to go by, I reckon Nude could do pretty damn well for themselves. While they have a definitive rock sound, they’re simply incomparable to anyone or anything else out there at the moment.
A shining example of this is the starting track, Transistor Fate, which finds the band kick off with a dark sounding section of music before the vocals kick in, and throughout the rest of the song there’s some kind of instrument I simply can’t put my finger on. Perhaps it’s a keyboard – people can get all sorts of various noises out of those. Once the vocals do kick in, they’re crystal clear, unlike many of today’s mainstream acts where the vocals and the music seem to compete with each other. Nude do not make this mistake. Instead, the vocals and music actually compliment one another, and the disc is all the better for it.
The uniqueness continues through title track Cities And Faces, a slightly more downtempo number. If you haven’t yet been struck by just how different this band is, Cities And Faces should get the job done. As with all good title tracks, this track emphasizes everything the band is all about. The dark rock sound is evident, and without knowing the lineup of the band, I’d say it’s obvious from this track they’re not your standard four-piece with a vocalist, guitarist, bassist and drummer. It’s quite clear there’s something more going on here, and if there isn’t, then Nude are to be congratulated on the way they utilize these instruments.
The one thing I don’t really like about this album is the ending of third track Inside. The majority of the track is all good, with a great tempo and stunning beat, but then they go and spoil it by having some staticty noise just as the track fades out. It serves no purpose, and if this were to be released to radio and you didn’t know better, you’d be checking your set, thinking you had to adjust the frequency slightly. The lyrics on this track can seem a little repetitive at times, but the beat more than makes up for this. It’s a damn good track, but the ending is a little annoying.
A long intro makes Pale Skin seem a little boring to start off with. For the first fifty seconds of the song, there’s nothing there but music, and that kinda loses me. It’s just a personal preference thing, as I hate instrumentals, but the vocals do eventually come along, and it’s a real blessing when they get there because the vocals on this track turn it into a real humdinger.
Pale Skin isn’t the only track where a long intro is used – they’re splattered all throughout the album, but unlike other mainstream bands, Nude are damn good at them. Tell Me What It Seems is a perfect example. The intro may seem to go on for a while, but it shifts pace and gets faster in just the right place, then the rest of the song rollicks on at that pace until it reaches it’s subtle conclusion and then just fades out. The use of the fade out is also to be praised, as using this method doesn’t leave the listener feeling like they’ve been cut off in the middle of the song.
News is certainly one of my favourite tracks. There’s a number of reasons for this – it’s got the same rocky sound as the rest of the album – but one of the main reasons is it’s placement on the album, coming in straight on the up-tempo after Tell Me What It Seems’s fade out. Other than that, it stands out for the way it almost seems to change into a completely different song in the middle section before reverting back to the way it started, and closes with what is simply the best ending on the album. This track is a definite highlight.
Blackest Time may not quite be in the same league as News - in fact it’s more akin to some of the earlier stuff on the album (the title track for example) – and unfortunately it’s not as good as that stuff. By the time I get to this section of the album and have heard News, I want to hear more songs like it. Because I’ve already heard such tracks as Cities And Faces, any tracks that come along afterwards sounding as similar as Blackest Time does are somewhat of a disappointment. It’s not that this is bad track – I daren’t use words such as ‘mediocre’ or ‘skippable’ to describe it, because those words don’t do the song any justice. On it’s own, it’s a damn fine track. In the context of the rest of the album, it almost brings out a déjà vu, same old same old kind of feeling.
The intro to U Got Mine is marked difference on other intros in the album. This time it’s the music that takes a bit of a backseat, allowing room for the near-rapped vocals to shine through, and shine through they do indeed. The vocals throughout this entire track are a little huskier than the rest of the album, and they make the track sound a lot darker and eerier.
As with News, Modern World is very well places on the album. There’s only two more songs to follow it, and it actually sounds like it’s taking me on a downward journey. It also features some very nice SFX, which makes the track sound like it’s been enhanced on a computer. Either that, or it simply confirms my suspicions there’s a keyboard involved somewhere here. Modern World is also a lot slower than some of the other tracks, and is very much downtempo in certain aspects. There’s a couple of places where it sounds like this track could end, but doesn’t, and as such it seems like it drags on a little more than necessary.
After the “downer” of Modern World, Somewhere lifts back up again. Including some spectacular drumming, this is one track that almost does sound a little out of place. When I think of a live show, I’d like to hear this track either right at the very beginning of the set to get the crowd amped, or right at the very end so the crowd leaves on a high note.
However, album closer Over The Sun would also suffice perfectly at that same job. On the other hand, it doesn’t have the same “album closer” sound as Modern World, which simply proves I can be quite impossible to please! The fact is, if you were to compare Over The Sun to any other track on the album, I’d say it’d be album opener Transistor Fate. And ending on the same kind of notes you started on cannot be a bad thing.
I entered this write/off for a few reasons. Mainly because I’m a sucker for a good write/off, but also a couple of other reasons as well. I figured a write/off was the perfect chance for me to get back into a music writing mode, and the best case scenario was that Matt would pair me with someone who would send me music I’d absolutely love and will listen to over and over again. I can safely say I’ll be doing so with Nude. It’s a shame there’s nothing like this in mainstream, because I think it could be a huge success. This is a CD that truly rocks, purely for the sake of rocking. This is exactly the kind of music that’s been missing from my life lately, and leaves me with a desire to learn more about the underground stuff. I’d always thought there had to be something better than some of the stuff you hear in mainstream, and I’m glad to have come across Nude. These guys are definitely worth checking out for a refreshing break from mainstream, and then they’re worth hanging onto. I may not know a lot about Nude, but I can tell you how much their music rocks, and that’s the most important thing.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dbcint
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Member: Dean Cowie
Location: Invercargill, New Zealand
Reviews written: 198
Trusted by: 39 members
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