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Spacehog - The Chinese Album Audio CD

A fair review of the Spacehog "The Chinese Album" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Spacehog reviews here, or go back to the Spacehog tabs.

Spacehog Band: Spacehog
Title: The Chinese Album
Rating:
Release Date: 1998-03-10
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: One of These Days 2: Goodbye Violet Race 3: Lucy's Shoe 4: Mungo City 5: Skylark 6: Sand in Your Eyes 7: Captain Freeman 8: 2nd Avenue 9: Almond Kisses 10: Carry On 11: Anonymous 12: Beautiful Girl

The '90s version of Revolver
I mean, "In the Meantime" is probably the greatest single ever released, so I had to know. Honestly, I bought this album just because I really liked the uneven, though still decent, Resident Alien and I wanted to know what the band had done since then. . .

Anyway, the Chinese Album has quickly made its way onto one of the hardest-to-crack lists ever. My top five albums of all time list. It's so hard to crack it used to contain only three albums. Now there are four. It's that good. I keep listening, thinking there has to be a throwaway track in there, but there absolutely isn't. No band outside of the Rolling Stones has had this amount of swagger. Just phenomenal.


Hog-tied
Most of the tracks are excellent and serve to expand their Bowie meets XTC sound. The Hogs have put together a decent second coming. But the album is a study in duality. The darker, mesmerizing tracks like One Of These Days (courtesy of Talking Heads) and Sand In Your Eyes are next to hyperpop tracks like Captain Freeman and Goodbye Violet Race. And the very weak tracks like "Anonymous", "Skylark", and "Lucy's Shoes" further split the CD. Still, the few catchy pop songs like "Carry On" and "Second Avenue" help balance the disc. Hopefully their next recording will be more daring and consistent.

[DW].


This is good pop music.
Then, on the other side of things, there's good, old-fashioned, bubble-gum beautiful pop music, which seems to be one of the most difficult genres of music to perform because absolutely nobody these days is getting it even close to right except for a very, very choice few. There are a million genres out there today, some of them so odd or experimental that if you manage to release an album at all, you're an instant hit.

Spacehog is one of them. This is simply pop done right, pure and simple and loud. Unfortunately, pop is so utterly common these days that people tend to forget about it, even when it's done very, very well, or to complain about it if it shows any depth or variety at all. . . Hence you've got some saying that Spacehog is utterly forgettable (perhaps it is), or way too derivative and giddy (of course it is) or perhaps too odd or diverse to be pop (maybe also true). . .

But such people should stop analyzing Spacehog and simply listen, because there's no denying that while it spins, you are smiling very large. . .

This is their best album so far. Get it, skip around a little, you're sure find _something_ you absolutely love.


Bowiephiles take heed!
The complicated structures of songs like Lucy's Shoe and Second Ave hark back to the good ol days of Roxy, while Mungo City is pure Bowie. Although it doesn't boast a single as immediate as "In the Meantime", The Chinese Album stands on its own as a tribute to glam rock, with a few faint echoes of Radiohead thrown in for good measure. For those Stipe hounds out there, he rears his shiny head on Almond Kisses, a hoplessly catchy sparkler, and the closer, Beautiful Girl, is so shimmery it will make you sway. There are some duds,(Skylark and Carry On are a bit tepid) but as a whole a step forward from Resident Alien. Can't wait to see what they do next.


Awesome
A genuine attempt to explore other aspects of rock. This disc is fun and creative. A fun trip from beginning to end. I picked this disc up on a whim when it first came out, and though I was surprised at first becuase I didn't know what to expect, it grew on me. A quick pointer: try and listen to a disc more than once. We all just need to be put in the groove. Music has a magic, just different types :).


You can see a complete list of all Spacehog discography, or go back to the Spacehog tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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