Blonde Redhead - Rumorstore search

As rich and densely layered as their last album, "Misery Is A Butterfly", but the overall mood of wistfulness, melancholy, and regret has been replaced by one of mystical wonder and renewed energy. "It's art music and heart music, with equal appeal to a Serge Gainsbourg fan as to a Sonic Youth fan, without ever sounding like either act" - LA Times.

As if getting a spread in a popular home décor magazine just a month prior to this album's release wasn't enough of a tipoff, Blonde Redhead have come a long way since their days of mimicking Sonic Youth's brittle art-rock. Clanging guitars have been replaced by warm synthesizers and soft strings, while Japanese singer Kazu Makino's thin voice has become a ghostly moan on the grandiose opener and title track of the New York trio's seventh full-length release, 23. Their last one, 2004's Misery Is a Butterfly, was a lovely throwback to the dream-pop heyday of the Cocteau Twins and Lush. This one presses further down that road, only with a more experimental streak, as cascading guitars, military rhythms, and wobbly melodies shape opulent, otherworldly songs like "The Dress" and "My Impure Hair." --Aidin Vaziri

The band's gently mournful economy of style is adorned by a cinematic breadth of instrumentation and by arrangements of rich depth. "Misery..." is a creative leap forward from their last album, "Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons".

New York City's Blonde Redhead developed a reputation as Sonic Youth imitators, because their sound originally depended on the same discordant guitar points and sexless machinelike rhythms. But over the course of five albums, they've grown out of that heady shadow. Incorporating sinister keyboards, conventional melodic guitar lines, and a stronger grasp of songwriting ("Melody of Certain Three," among others, is hummable), Blonde Redhead is emerging from the underground rock world with a sound that mixes dissonant alt-rock ("For the Damaged") with space-age pop grace ("Ballad of Lemons") and orchestral ambitions ("Loved Despite Great Faults"). Mixed louder than the usual indie release, the atmospheric lead vocals of Kazu Makino bring the imagistic lyrics to the fore. "Hated Because of Great Qualities" builds into a teetering seesaw of notes while Makino admits, "It never meant a thing. So be it," with Godardian detachment. Definitely one of the more noteworthy bands that have slowly been growing into a diverse and formidable act. --Rob O'Connor

On their sophomore album, Blonde Redhead streamline the beautiful ballast of their debut into a feral flow as focused as it is furious. An upgrade in production values this time around doesn't stifle the energy, and greatly enhances the increasingly sophisticated interplay between intstruments and voices. If the debut announced their arrival, La Mia Vita Violenta cemented their (rightful) place at the table.

Blonde Redhead churn out hazy headed music for a sun baked crowd at the McCarren Park Pool.

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