Soft Metals
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Jul 16, 2013 Web Exclusive
Two years from its self-titled debut, this “synth-pop romance” has entered into a drab second phase. While the first album wasn’t exactly built for the bumping masses of the dance floor, it had a cool, shifting vibe that borrowed from Italo disco and Italian horror; there were sections of Soft Metals as indebted to Dario Argento as to electronic dance music. This follow-up drops many of their cinematic aspects in favor of hazier, ambient numbers; Ian Hicks’ racing, John Carpenter-esque synth riffs have been swapped for layers of shimmery, shapeless muck. Patricia Hall’s drawn-out vocals do nothing to raise the pulse rate; the lyrics move more slowly than the music. While this could have been a record defined by atmosphere, the near-absence of energy and long, formless instrumental sections will have listeners tuning out long before it hits any sort of stride. If the musicians sound bored, how should we feel? (www.facebook.com/softmetals)
Author rating: 3.5/10
Average reader rating: 1/10
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