Audio Cassette review:
Elastica - The Menace

Elastica - The Menace

Band: Elastica Title: The Menace Rating: Release Date: 22 August, 2000 Media: Audio Cassette Tracks: 1: Mad Dog God Dam 2: Generator 3: How He Wrote Elastica Man 4: Image Change 5: Your Arse...My Place 6: Human 7: Nothing Stays the Same 8: Miami Nice 9: Love Like Ours 10: KB 11: My Sex 12: Way I Like It 13: Da Da Da

Editoral Review A long wait, to say the least, but The Menace doesn't find Elastica making a radical change from the angular pop of their first album. Elastica's second album, The Menace, comes a full five years after their million-selling, self-titled debut. The departure of guitarist Donna Matthews (who still plays on two tracks, "How He Wrote Elastica Man"--which also features the Fall's Mark E. Smith--and "Image Change") steered the band away from their punkier leanings and allowed them to fully explore the new wave path that they started down way back in 1995. Keyboards and synths now blend more completely with their spiky guitars, as do cheesy Casio tone beats and retro-futuristic samples, resulting in such hyperenergetic numbers as "Mad Dog" and "Your Arse My Place. " Elastica still wear their influences on their sleeves--yep, they sure do like Wire--and they even manage to fit a legitimate cover onto the album (Trio's 1982 hit "Da Da Da"). Five years on, The Menace sees Elastica on the same ground as their debut, but rather than simply retreading it, they just dig deeper and unearth more treasures. --Robert Burrow .. You can see a complete list of all Elastica discography, or go back to the Elastica tabs