Artist: Low City Rain
Title: Low City Rain
Genre: New-Wave Revival
Release Date: 27th September 2013
Label: Prophecy
Album Review
Germany’s wonderfully named LOW CITY RAIN peddle a kind of 80’s revivalism that still seems de rigueur amongst the cool set, despite being a much used and abused tactic by now. And success is joyfully achieved on the opening track here ‘You Are Everyone, You Are Everywhere’. It’s a headstrong whoosh of pummelling drums, jangly, celestial guitars and dreamy vocals, a gap free feel-good mood-piece that manages to dance brilliantly with a foot in two decades, 30 years apart. There’s 90’s dream-pop and shoe-gaze thrown in there too, but then who has three feet? It’s fab, man. If only there was more of the same. ‘Grey View’ has all the dynamics of ‘Disintegration’ era THE CURE, voiced by DAVID SYLVIAN, and it suffers not a jot because of it. But what’s with the fade-out? Yak! A truly ghastly relic from a time when either albums needed to be padded out with interminable outros, or a band simply couldn’t be arsed to think up an ending.
Swampy wall of sound ‘I Don’t Know Myself’ soon settles down into echo and distance, wanting perhaps to be TALK TALK but veering more towards FICTION FACTORY, and no, not the big hit, more the follow-up. Slowing down even more for ‘Numb’, the influences here are too many to list but moody OMD is as close as you need to get. It doesn’t really do anything, ambling along in the background but looking hard for a memorable tune or hook. It fades out too. Tsk. There’s a jolt with ‘Phantom’, some plucky guitar and driving drums creating some atmosphere and intrigue, and ‘Nightshift’ is positively heavy-metal compared to what’s been before. Gnarly, snarly riffs and some more direct singing give this an edge, and it has a chorus that finally soars and does justice to the pillaging. Let’s face it, a big chorus was never far away in the glorious 80’s. It’s good stuff.
Back to THE CURE-like for ‘Vulnerable Now’, a weedy and watery paddle in runny pastels. It’s probably about really missing some girl that never read the poems he sent, but to be honest the mumbling is so background that I’m not really too fussed what it’s about. Oh, and it fades out. Can final track ‘Your Eyes And The Sea’ wave us off in any style then? It’s synthy and swirly and largely instrumental, like a freshly unearthed lost track from ‘Architecture And Morality’ era OMD and it does achieve some of the grandeur and grace it aims for. But on the whole, this is a collection of songs that feels constructed, not grown organically. There are many of the best elements of the decades it mines here, but ticked off on a list, it seems, rather than remembered and reinterpreted with affection. Definitely not a complete flop, it does however appear a bit loveless at times, like a project everyone involved is pleased with, but no-one will remember after the initial congratulations are over.
Tracklist
01. You Are Everyone, You Are Everywhere
02. Grey View
03. I Don’t Know Myself
04. Numb
05. Phantom
06. Nightshift
07. Vulnerable Now
08. Your Eyes And The Sea
Line-up
Markus Siegenhort
Felix Wylezik
Website
https://www.facebook.com/LowCityRain
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 6
Sound: 6
Total: 6 / 10
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