davegingerich's Full Review: Blue Wonder Power Milk by Hooverphonic
An even stronger CD than their freshman effort.
Who: Hooverphonic What:Blue Wonder Power Milk Label: Sony Release Date: 1998 Produced By: Mark Plati Track Listing: 1. Battersea 2. One Way Ride 3. Dictionary 4. Club Montepulciano 5. Eden 6. Lung 7. Electro Shock Faders 8. Out Of Tune 9. This Strange Effect 10. Renaissance Affair 11. Tuna 12. Magenta 13. Blue Wonder Power Milk (Uncredited & unlisted in liner notes)
Sounds a bit like:A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular by Hooverphonic but with more variety
Influenced by:Portishead by Portishead but not as dreary (or as experimental).
Other uses: As the background music for that VW New Beetle commercial advertising their new Vapor color. Track #10, Renaissance Affair
The Play-by-Play Battersea begins with 26 seconds of slow, symphonic chord progressions from "The Hooverphonic String Orchestra" before a manic, staccato drum beat tears it apart. Both are temporarily replaced by a smooth melody from Geike Arnaert's voice which echoes the soaring strings and then all three are back together in an exuberant, stirring confusion. Interspersed are short guitar lines from Raymond Geerts and Alex Callier which have enough reverb that you'd think Robin Guthrie had produced the album. The fast-slow, smooth vs. staccato technique isn't new, but is effective here and it works well. My only qualm with this one, why couldn't they make it longer than 3:49?
Although the underlying scheme of One Way Ride is plainer than Battersea, it is kept from falling flat by the breathiness of Geike's delivery and the lush production, including a pair of trombones. It isn't as strong as much of the rest of the CD and the 3:21 length reflects that Hooverphonic probably couldn't sustain it much longer.
Dictionary returns the CD to the high standard set by Battersea. In this one we have a steady bass-heavy drum rhythm, minor chords, and tremolo guitar that reflects an influence from the 60's B-movie sound of Portishead. Vocals this time are picked up by Alex Callier and he maintains the creepy nature.
Thank goodness though that Geike returns right away with upfront vocals in Club Montepulciano. Not to take anything away from Callier, but Geike is the reason to listen to the vox on this CD.
Eden is one of the better tracks on the CD. Horns, more orchestral work and a closely miced Geike provide a mournfully seductive song of regret and missed opportunity. Geike drops down and provides a conspiratorial whisper... this is the way broken lovers talk to one another.
On this CD Hooverphonic provides lyrics for each song in the liner notes. I'm not sure why, they're all short, mostly consisting of 3 to 10 word phrases strung together. For track 6, Lung however they don't provide all of them. Total lyrics shown in the notes: "let's open it - be strong - cut out - it's lung". I'm not calling it a defect, just making a note of it. Lung is the bounciest, popiest, rockingest song on the CD. No strings, no horns, but Plati can't leave it alone as a rock set either.
Electro Shock Faders returns Callier to the vocal chores and this time he fits better than on Dictionary. It bears some resemblance to Battersea with its drums-over-orchestra structure and barely makes it to 3:00 but is still a decent song for this CD.
I'm not sure what Hooverphonic was trying to achieve with Out Of Tune but it works for me. Just as above, they bring Geike right back to counter Callier's vocal delivery. Here's a strong beat, lots of production, even some Cocteau-ish waterfall guitar at the beginning and Geike's whispering delivery sounding like a vampish Lolitta.
Track 9, This Strange Effect starts with a Spaghetti-Western guitar playing over strings wandering over just a few notes which borrows from Portishead but isn't imitative. It's dreamy and somewhat melancholic.
As I note above, Renaissance Affair was picked up by VW for use in what I thought was a pretty nifty commercial for their Vapor color on the New Beetle. If you've seen the commercial you understand how well this tune fits the dreamy, cloud-like imagery and the name Vapor.
Can I skip over Tuna? Eleven out of twelve isn't bad for any CD, is it? Maybe it's just the start of this one which doesn't thrill me but there's goofy electronic moog junk in the middle which.... well, it sounds like producer Plati didn't really know what to do with this one and let the group just record something. Basically you're waiting through 3:45 of blandness just to get to
Magenta is a nice way to close at least the credited part of the CD. (Is this another one of those CDs trying to get around some European tax-code fluke which causes problems for artists who want to put more than an even dozen songs on a CD?) A military-march drum underneath the orchestra and Geike this time basically speaking the vocal line. This selection bears a resemblance to what Hooverphonic did with their first CD, especially some of the "studio-announcer" chatter of Inhaler.
The unlisted track at #13 happens to be the eponymous cut and closes the CD with Callier's voice in a British-pop tune that runs only about 3 minutes.
Conclusion
A real decent CD that is a fitting follow to Hooverphonic's earlier CD, "A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular" although it doesn't provide the variety of that one. This CD sounds more serious, not as goofy and yet, maybe because of Sony's influence or Plati's, the production sounds pretty similar on every song.
Blue Wonder is a little different from Stereophonic however I think the differences come from maturity and greater confidence. It's good to see a group develop musically and not stagnate.
Blue Wonder is a fine CD packed with some moody beats and creative electronica mixed well with synth-sounding strings. The CD isn't dreary but it isn't Brittany-Spears-brightness and fluff either. There is depth in the music, the delivery and the vocals.
Note: This review was completely re-written on August 13, 2000.
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