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DVDfever.co.uk – The Alexandria Quartet: The Alexandria Quartet CD reviewElly Roberts reviews
Nettwerk Records
- Released: June 2009
- Rating: 10/10
- Vote and comment on this album:View Comments
Look out Snow Patrol, Coldplay and Kasabian youve got big competition.
There are four people (obviously) in Norways Alexandria Quartet Martin Skalnes, Oystein Braut, Chris Holm and Kim Age Furuhaug. Theyve moved from their hometown of Bergen to the east end of London to get their burgeoning career up-and-running.
This is their debut and its very impressive indeed. Its taken some 18 months to get it right, and its been worth it.
Singer Martin is a dead ringer for Rufus Wainwright who can also switch to sounding like Turin Brakes Ollie Knights. Also, it seems, TAQ have the same ambitions, musically, to match Wainwrights grandness fused with urban folk-pop and U2s stadium rock vision.This is epitomised by the string arrangement that opens The Dark Side Of The Blues their debut single which turns into a stomping pop-rocker that draws on the bluesier elements of rock.
In contrast, I Need Someone To Love, is a sharp ballad that builds into a magnificent mini-opus. The key to the success of this is the attention to detail instrumentally, featuring a sizzling guitar solo.Into The Light is an out-and-out attempt to impress even more, as if we havent been so far. The piano (Skalnes) and drums (Furuhaug) provide the hook with Braut providing the economical Byrds-like jangly guitar.
Somewhere is a whopping, mature ballad. Again some gorgeous piano leads the way, followed by strings and some understated Pink Floyd guitar fused with shades of country, whereas Get Lost In The City echoes the popier side of Turin Brakes with some stylish and edgy guitar interludes. Arguably the best track on the album You Could Be My Mirror is the sort of song I expected Coldplay to deliver at sometime in their career, but never arrived. It has enough stadium rock appeal with huge sounding riffs and a cool pop edge with sumptuous guitar breaks.Wainwrights shadow looms large on the piano lead ballad Ace Upon The Sleeve providing the collection with a touch of sophistication. It would have slotted perfectly onto his Want Two.
Once again the stadium rock flavour returns on the thrusting Justine, and on first listen, could actually be U2 because of the reverbed riffs.And finally. A Monsters Lullaby is a mini-masterpiece. This gentle Beatles-esque ballad (Macca would love this) is the song which showcases their collective and individual talents. Its starts slowly, building (with masses of strings) into one mother of a crescendo, and a fitting way to close a really, really classy album.
The verdict: One of the most promising bands of 2009. Love them.
Weblink:myspace.com/thealexandriaquartet
The full list of tracks included are :
1. The Dark Side Of The Blues
2. I Need Someone To Love
3. Into The Light
4. Somewhere
5. Get Lost In The City
6. You Could Be My Mirror
7. Montauk
8. Ace Upon The Sleeve
9. Justine
10. Leaving You With Music
11. A Monsters Lullaby View the discussion thread.blog comments powered by Disqus= 0) {query += ‘url’ + i + ‘=’ + encodeURIComponent(links[i].href) + ‘&’;}}document.write(”);})();//]]]]>]]>
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.