Fred Avril - That Horse Must Be Starving
(PIAS)
Fred Avril makes "sophisticated" electronic singer-songwriter music. A subtly horrible record, this feels like an attempt to disguise a hopelessly trite bunch of songs by dressing them up in "cutting-edge" "relevant" IDM clothing. He has a smooth Thom Yorke-esque voice with just a twinge of the obnoxiously nasal, emotive delivery of a Backstreet Boy. Some of the music here is effective, complex electronica; the most frustrating thing about the album is that the music keeps promising to blossom into something great, but it always deteriorates into pure cheese. There is an aesthetic pervading the album that I can only describe as corporate. I could compare it to Radiohead and Bjork, but the approach is often more similar to Kylie Minogue. Some especially low moments: the outro to "The Date," in which he sexily whispers "bad boy... you're a bad boy, you!" over a muzak-y backdrop of electronic lounge music; or the French woman in "Double Mind" who sexily whispers (again) sweet nothings while Fred emotes "Do you think we're falling?" I predict this album will appeal to undersexed middle-aged ladies, clueless fashionistas, and investment bankers hoping to appear hip. If you feel like listening to some great laptop-songwriter music, get a Bobby Birdman record instead.
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