parkavery's Full Review: Aurora Gory Alice by Letters To Cleo
Okay, so the average person on the street will stare at my Letters to Cleo t-shirt and ask me what it means. "It's a band!" Though best known for their Melrose Place hit "Here and Now", Letters to Cleo always seem to pack their albums full of infectious pop songs. It's still a blatant mystery to me why they aren't more famous. But I digress.
Whenever I'm in a Letters to Cleo mood, there's degrees that I have to measure. With each successive album (from "AGA", "WMF", and "Go!"), LTC have added a little more production to their sound. For those in a mellower, meditative type mood, "Aurora Gory Alice" will do the trick.
The guitars, for the most part, are soft, with nice backing chords over brilliant lyrics. "AGA" is perfection.
Yes, "Here and Now" is on this album, but it isn't the best song. "Come Around" is a masterpiece, with highs and lows and plenty of emotion. "Get On With It" is the same way, moving from one rhythm guitar to a pulsating, drum-filled chorus, then back down, then back up. It's amazing how a band can be so versatile that they can do that and it sounds this good. Moving on.
"I See" is a song I still would love to hear on the radio. It's got an infectious sing-a-long chorus ("I see I see I see this world going in circles around and around me"...), and again, intelligent lyrics.
Those are the big highlights. But because this album has been worn out in my CD player, I'm just going to go ahead and give you a small review of each song on the album. Here we go.
1. "BIG STAR"- This was the B-side to the famous "Here and Now" single, and it's great. The vocals and the guitar fit together like glue, echoing each other and existing together perfectly in the chorus.
2. "I SEE"- This song needs to be on the radio. It's infectious! It's fun! And it's damn witty too!
3. "RIM SHAK"- Maybe the one rawk song on the album, "Rim Shak" has possibly the coolest lyrics on the entire CD, not to mention some phat guitar riffs.
4. "WASTED"- Another gem. The song has good, contained emotion. Kay really captured her feelings on this album, but in particular, on this song.
5. "GET ON WITH IT"- Okay, so maybe I know it as the only LTC song to have vulgarity in it. But it tells a nice story, and like I said before, the surging guitars and the contrast between the verses and the choruses is terrific.
6. "HERE AND NOW"- The famous song, yes, but probably one of my least favourites on the album. But just like with "I See", the fast chains of lyrics are very singable, and they stick in your head.
7. "FROM UNDER THE DUST"- Very few bands on their first album dare to have an innovative bass player. LTC did it, and there's a little bass intro at the beginning of this song.
8. "MELLIE'S COMIN' OVER"- Maybe another rock song, but more likely just a little tune to jump around to. Nonetheless, this is a phat song.
9. "COME AROUND"- Emotion in Kay's voice is perfect, and just like with Track 5, the contrasting parts is perfect.
10. "STEP BACK"- Interesting song. Seems like they just sat down as an afterthought to record this (come on, hand claps and foot slaps as percussion instruments?), but it's a cute song. It would have seemed weird if it was anywhere but last on this CD though.
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