Soulwax
Much Against Everyone's Advice

THE REVIEW

Before the mash-up and bastard pop, before the DJ sets, the dance turn, and the (relative) commercial success, and especially before betraying the great expectations with the overrated "Any Minute Now", Soulwax were first and foremost a great indie pop band, endowed with the innate ability to write songs in the true sense of the word, which stuck in your mind at first listen thanks to their killer hooks, yet never banal or too easy.

I am very sorry to have to speak in the past tense because it was truly a great band led by the Dewaele brothers, but unfortunately Soulwax are no longer all of that. This "Much Against Everyone's Advice" was released in 1998, a time when everything coming out of Belgium seemed to be a small musical miracle made of grace and substance, and incidentally, it's a small masterpiece. In this album, Soulwax amaze with their ability to craft simple yet particular and refined songs, merging melodies almost in the Beatles style with cultured pop rock in the dEUS style, while when the guitars get harder, they seem in their small way to evoke certain Nirvana sounds. Not original in the strictest sense of the word, they know how to draw very well from the source and rework everything by writing absolutely personal and heartfelt songs, which manage to strike and move those who listen thanks to their underlying melancholy. The entire tracklist is absolutely textbook, but standouts include "Conversation Intercom", "More Than This" (the real peak of the album, very calm and relaxed with acoustic guitar over electronic drums, then a guitar solo that seems to have come out of a late Beatles album), "Overweight Karate Kid", "Scream" (with its beautiful crescendo), "Saturday" (almost a reinterpretation of "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson, so much so that Soulwax later made a mash-up version using the base of Jackson's piece...).

The purchase is strongly recommended as the album, besides being at a nice price, is easy to find. You won't regret it because, aside from great music, there's also something else: fantastic artwork and booklet (very vintage with graphics inspired by old vinyl, great idea!), and also excellent is the CD-ROM section (for 1998, it was a big, big novelty...), which among other things includes a Space Invaders-style video game that alone is worth buying the album.

I find it natural to conclude by saying one thing: I totally respect the Dewaele brothers, their courage to change, and the fact that they have evolved and play with conviction what they like, but I liked Soulwax more before...