Sparklehorse
Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot

THE REVIEW

Hello, I just signed up to review this album. Is there already a review of this album? I know there is, and I also know it is undoubtedly better than mine, but since it's the last CD I bought before starting school, I want my impression of this masterpiece (sorry for the pun) to be remembered.

Before moving on to the facts, I want to tell you that I was concerned with this "last CD" matter because last year it happened with 'In Your Honor' by the Foo Fighters, and my first day of high school had D.O.A. as its soundtrack... that said, let's start with what should interest you the most: "VIVADIXIESUBMARINETRANSMISSIONPLOT".

I will try to make an objective review without knowing anything about country-folk and all those things written about this group, which I didn't even know existed until 6 hours ago. The album opens with 'Homecoming Queen' which has a beautiful arpeggio, and a whispered voice, dreamy, melancholic to avoid when feeling down. From Homecoming Queen it moves to Weird Sisters, and you get the sensation of waking up from the previous song also because you start to hear the drums that give a bit of vitality to the so far slow record. Then follows the track '850 Pumper Holley' which apparently is not entirely out of place since very short noise-only tracks are more than present in this album... and here comes Rainmaker with slightly distorted but effective chords, immediately giving way to the bass and the voice full of 'teenage boredom'.

The atmosphere on 'Spirit Ditch' returns to the beginning of the album focusing less on the high notes (there are none) and on a less sparse instrumentation (guitar, bass, and drums while on the first track there is a guitar and another instrument with a volume so low I can't understand what it is). The melancholy is abandoned, but if waking up before was easy, now we're awakened like a bucket of water with a distorted guitar and a voice reminiscent of Rainmaker, just a bit more shrill, I'm talking about 'tears on fresh fruit', followed by Saturday, a true melancholy ballad (then this is really the style of the group!!) with a pretty good arpeggio.

Arpeggios are also discussed in Cow, a piece with a very simple harmonica that only serves as an accompaniment... stunning. Let's skip a track absent-mindedly and arrive at Hammering the Cramps where there is a skillful use of reverb that gives a hypnotic air to the piece. A much simpler and instrument-poor song (guitar and clean voice) is Most Beautiful Widow In Town. A similar ballad is Heart Of Darkness only not so austere. Pure noise in the track Ballad Of A Cold Lost Marble with a distorted bass and a guitar that always repeats the same chord with a downward strum. The most catchy song, however, is undoubtedly Someday I Will Treat You Good played with feedback and dissonances which indicate that the artist was far from making a pop piece. We are closing and the calm lost two tracks ago returns on the pieces Sad&Beautiful World and Gasoline Horses.

Why did I give the album 4 and not 5? I give 5 to Electric Ladyland, Velvet Underground & Nico, and to Beautiful Freak, not to small episodes like this one... thank you for your time... until next time