 |
| Track list: 1. My Things 2. Rain 3. Sometime Later 4. Delaney 5. Hazeldub 6. Slim 7. Come From Heaven 8. Back 9. Nyquil 10. Apple Orange 11. With 12. Firefly 13. Somewhere Not Here Running time: 68 minutes Released: 1997 |
I can't remember when I picked this up, but it was long, long after it was released, and solely on the basis of a Massive Attack connection. That said I do have some one-off tracks by Alpha scattered through my collection it seems so maybe they led me to the album. I recall being profoundly disappointed with it and don't think I am consciously able to identify any of these tracks, but now it is time to give it its fair shot.
It's straight in to its first loop, no intro. It's a fairly slow, long pattern and the top end of it is not the most interesting. I have a feeling that this listen could become a slog in at least a couple of ways already. To be fair one of those is not the fault of Alpha; that this is the first full weekend I'll have at home in 3 weeks; that I've spent most of the day thus far (and all of the last weekend at home) doing chores, that I've been ridiculously busy of late. But the fact this is downtempo stuff really doesn't help.
Downtempo isn't necessarily bad, far from it, but it does rather lead to a sleepy atmosphere, and when tired that has a knock-on effect. Paying attention for close to 70 minutes of this will test my wakefulness, regardless of what I think of the music. So far, so little. Second track, Rain, has a vocal that sounds pretty phoned in over a similarly bland loop as the opener. The repetitiveness of it is a major drawback - both in terms of my staying alert and in terms of how enjoyable the track is. The loop itself is too strong, too forceful, too central. The variations that really should be making and breaking these tracks are subservient to the structural pieces rather than the other way around. It's all a little turgid, a little stolid and a little guileless.
It probably also doesn't help that I think I am coming down with something... can't keep my throat clear, so I am on the whisky to try to burn whatever it is out. That kind of discomfort and grogginess doesn't make the glacial pace any more palatable though. Three tracks in and I am sorely tempted to write off the whole lot and be done with it. The third is the worst yet - a 7 minute long trudge with nothing of any interest. The vocal is uninspired, the backing seems to alternate between two long-held notes ad nauseam. Yawn. I am struggling to find something positive to comment on to break up my negativity - I don't like to be too monotonously scathing - but not finding anything.
At least the 7 minute thing is over?
The soporific nature of these tunes is only matched by the sheer boredom of waiting for a couple of minutes every so often for the screen to catch up with my fingers as I type. For some reason Firefox is hanging with a worrying degree of regularity. I really should make the full-time jump to Chrome as FF seems to get worse every week by comparison.
Stopping early is against the spirit of the project. I really shouldn't do it... but I want to, so much, as this is pretty much the worst thing I have encountered to date in my listens. Not worst as in most offensive, not worst as in unlistenable, but worst in terms of simply having nothing to get even remotely interested or excited about. Hazeldub, playing now, is the least worst track so far but even this feels quite poorly stitched together.
A lot has happened since I did my last listen, at the end of a week when I got up a head of steam again. That was 20 days ago. Since then I've been to Moscow for a long week of meetings, and had weeks either side of that in which I have barely had room to breathe, certainly no chance of sitting down to really listen to anything. From that point of view I was dead keen to fit a listen in today. If only the album had been at all interesting. For the sake of not becoming even more of a broken record I am going to stop typing for a bit and really try to search for something to break the monotony of complaint. Fingers crossed, here goes...
There is a nice bit! A break in the pattern as Slim turns in, the vocal is set free a bit and the support goes nice and light. It's nothing special, but in the context of what is around it it's like a droplet of ambrosia.
I don't think I am mellowing to this disc, but at the same time it seems to have got less unpalatable in the last few minutes. I think this is to do with a couple of quieter tracks, background reduced, focus on vocal. It's not enough of an improvement for me to want to keep any of the tunes yet but it is a noticeable step in the right direction. Here and there some more thoughtful, more impactful sounds are coming to the fore. Just three tunes and 15 minutes still to go. Somehow I have broken the back of this listen... by largely switching off from one of the core conceits of this blog. I don't want this one to set a pattern.
Thing is, Come From Heaven is not bad in a way that is amusing, that can be joked or laughed about easily. Its bad because it's so mediocre, so middle-of-the-road, so dull and bland that there are simply not enough talking points. Even the improvements in the second half of the run time have been baby steps - from dull and boring to pleasant and boring. I am glad I stuck with it, happy to have had a little bit more life in the later tracks even if it is not enough for me to say any of them are worth holding on to.
The album ends with a slow, dreamy track, spoiled by its duration (7 minutes) and its context. It's a high point, not just because it signals the end, but alas the peak is too late, and too low.
It's straight in to its first loop, no intro. It's a fairly slow, long pattern and the top end of it is not the most interesting. I have a feeling that this listen could become a slog in at least a couple of ways already. To be fair one of those is not the fault of Alpha; that this is the first full weekend I'll have at home in 3 weeks; that I've spent most of the day thus far (and all of the last weekend at home) doing chores, that I've been ridiculously busy of late. But the fact this is downtempo stuff really doesn't help.
Downtempo isn't necessarily bad, far from it, but it does rather lead to a sleepy atmosphere, and when tired that has a knock-on effect. Paying attention for close to 70 minutes of this will test my wakefulness, regardless of what I think of the music. So far, so little. Second track, Rain, has a vocal that sounds pretty phoned in over a similarly bland loop as the opener. The repetitiveness of it is a major drawback - both in terms of my staying alert and in terms of how enjoyable the track is. The loop itself is too strong, too forceful, too central. The variations that really should be making and breaking these tracks are subservient to the structural pieces rather than the other way around. It's all a little turgid, a little stolid and a little guileless.
It probably also doesn't help that I think I am coming down with something... can't keep my throat clear, so I am on the whisky to try to burn whatever it is out. That kind of discomfort and grogginess doesn't make the glacial pace any more palatable though. Three tracks in and I am sorely tempted to write off the whole lot and be done with it. The third is the worst yet - a 7 minute long trudge with nothing of any interest. The vocal is uninspired, the backing seems to alternate between two long-held notes ad nauseam. Yawn. I am struggling to find something positive to comment on to break up my negativity - I don't like to be too monotonously scathing - but not finding anything.
At least the 7 minute thing is over?
The soporific nature of these tunes is only matched by the sheer boredom of waiting for a couple of minutes every so often for the screen to catch up with my fingers as I type. For some reason Firefox is hanging with a worrying degree of regularity. I really should make the full-time jump to Chrome as FF seems to get worse every week by comparison.
Stopping early is against the spirit of the project. I really shouldn't do it... but I want to, so much, as this is pretty much the worst thing I have encountered to date in my listens. Not worst as in most offensive, not worst as in unlistenable, but worst in terms of simply having nothing to get even remotely interested or excited about. Hazeldub, playing now, is the least worst track so far but even this feels quite poorly stitched together.
A lot has happened since I did my last listen, at the end of a week when I got up a head of steam again. That was 20 days ago. Since then I've been to Moscow for a long week of meetings, and had weeks either side of that in which I have barely had room to breathe, certainly no chance of sitting down to really listen to anything. From that point of view I was dead keen to fit a listen in today. If only the album had been at all interesting. For the sake of not becoming even more of a broken record I am going to stop typing for a bit and really try to search for something to break the monotony of complaint. Fingers crossed, here goes...
There is a nice bit! A break in the pattern as Slim turns in, the vocal is set free a bit and the support goes nice and light. It's nothing special, but in the context of what is around it it's like a droplet of ambrosia.
I don't think I am mellowing to this disc, but at the same time it seems to have got less unpalatable in the last few minutes. I think this is to do with a couple of quieter tracks, background reduced, focus on vocal. It's not enough of an improvement for me to want to keep any of the tunes yet but it is a noticeable step in the right direction. Here and there some more thoughtful, more impactful sounds are coming to the fore. Just three tunes and 15 minutes still to go. Somehow I have broken the back of this listen... by largely switching off from one of the core conceits of this blog. I don't want this one to set a pattern.
Thing is, Come From Heaven is not bad in a way that is amusing, that can be joked or laughed about easily. Its bad because it's so mediocre, so middle-of-the-road, so dull and bland that there are simply not enough talking points. Even the improvements in the second half of the run time have been baby steps - from dull and boring to pleasant and boring. I am glad I stuck with it, happy to have had a little bit more life in the later tracks even if it is not enough for me to say any of them are worth holding on to.
The album ends with a slow, dreamy track, spoiled by its duration (7 minutes) and its context. It's a high point, not just because it signals the end, but alas the peak is too late, and too low.
No comments:
Post a Comment