All Natural Lemon and Lime Flavors - Straight Blue Line
(Gern Blandsten)
Now I'm as big a My Bloody Valentine/shoegazer fan as the next chap, and in my day, I
have even loved the copycats. You can not deny the occasional greatness of
the Swirlies, Drop Nineteens, Medicine, Slowdive, Ride, Lush, early Lilys,
etc. But they were second generation; they took the sound and tried to do
their own thing with it. Now, with a whole group of rockers gazing down at
the floor in a midst of pseudo-minimalist rockism and drone, it's not
surprising that we see yet another band aping the shoegazer sound more
directly. Again, this isn't necessarily a bad thing--I like a lot of those
bands I just mentioned. But what happens when a band like All Natural Lemon and Line Flavors decide to
"progress" their sound from that of the influence to those the influence has
influenced?
This band's first album was a pretty tasty bit of MBV-drenched pop.
Not great but pretty good and a lot of fun to fuck to. Unfortunately,
they've decided to step the sound up and away a bit, and I have to say it is
to their detriment. Instead of MBV we get a sound that is very very similar
to Lush in their Spooky-era with sharp, chimey lined-in guitars and ethereal
vocals. They also seem to have picked up a bit of Stereolab along the way--no
surprise there, as Stereolab were frequently lumped in with the shoegazers as
well. Not to say this is horrible, and not even anything I didn't expect--their
last album didn't exactly break any new ground--but this one is missing
some of the hooks and melody that made the last one listenable.
Like shoegaze? I mean a lot. Then perhaps you'll like this. Otherwise, you'd be
better off picking up...I don't know...the new Arco Flute Foundation CD or
something.
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