Morcheeba
Fragments Of Freedom

THE REVIEW

Apparently, trip-hop is dead (critics rarely spread such news, perhaps they hide it even from themselves to avoid sending two flowers to the funeral). Does this mournful circumstance concern Morcheeba?

Actually, even when listening to “Big Calm”, the feeling was that Skye and the group made a decidedly moderate use of this style, noticeable only in certain songs with a languid atmosphere. Now “Fragments Of Freedom”, after an intermediate track like “World Looking In”, which seems to be the umbilical cord connecting the trio to its first two albums, reveals new cards with “Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day”, rhythm and blues in the classic sense of the term (not the modern one, according to which even Whitney Houston and Destiny’s Child would be doing r’n’b). And after the resounding immediacy of the single, it moves to the funky of “Love Is Rare”, the soul of “Let It Go”, the “disco” echoes of "Love Sweet Love” or “Shallow End” (check the calendar: it’s not 1978), up to the rap of “In The Hands Of The Gods” or “Good Girl Down”.

Those who would like to find the unusual blend of black music and acoustic atmospheres characteristic of “Big Calm” will not be entirely satisfied: there is some trace of it in “Be Yourself” and in the title track of the album, which recovers the harmonic progression of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven”; but overall, in “Fragments Of Freedom” it is black music dominating in all its forms. Above all, though, with an eye to the past, to the retrieval of an energy and a sound soul that the black music, once brimming with it, seems to have lost today.
Is it a good album, the third by Morcheeba? It is certainly less captivating than “Big Calm”, and it deviates (with courage or recklessness) from the sounds that had conquered most of the group's fans; but it might have a longer life than its predecessors, due to the vitality of certain rhythms. The only drawback is that Skye's soft and seductive voice doesn't find the ballad to stretch upon, whereas some tracks seem suited to performers with somewhat sharper nails. But the album on the whole features more enjoyable tracks than you might hear in an hour of listening to any radio network, which is why we recommend giving it a listen.