Strange Geometry | Loppylugs

Submitted by Neil Hornsey on 14 February 2013 - 10:43pm

Cover:

Artist:

The Clientele

album-ID:

a_13

Nationality:

Year:

2 005

Release-year:

0000

Num-of-tracks:

Track-listing:

Since K Got Over Me*(I Can’t Seem To) Make You Mine*My Own Face Inside The Trees*K*E.M.P.T.Y.*When I Came Home From The Party*Geometry Of Lawns*Spirit*Impossible*Step Into The Light*Losing Haringey*Six Of Spades

Length-in-mins:

Nominator:

Bean

meeting-ID:

m_7

Now-num:

Spotify-URL:

1y2FfiNb0UkwKnxGjyNSYC

Grooveshark-URL:

Strange+Geometry/131343

Short-title:

geometry

nominator-ID:

u_13

Meeting-date:

Tuesday, 11 December 2007

MusicBrainz-URL:

41bee812-2e6d-3c71-8bed-058101d0dfe5

Wikipedia-URL:

Strange_Geometry

Spotify-link-type:

album

Metacritic-URL:

strange-geometry/the-clientele

Discogs-URL:

Clientele-Strange-Geometry/master/53573

Allmusic-URL:

strange-geometry-mw0000406048

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108

109

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reviewers-IDs data

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88

reviewed by

Neil Hornsey

The geometry may be strange, but it all fits into place for me.

1-2-3-8-9

6-7-10-12

I understand other's reservations about this album, and their possible reservations about the lyricist. It's true that the album has a 'sound' and that at times it can become monotonous, particularly around the middle where several tracks tend to merge (no pun intended). However one can't deny the beauty that is present throughout. The first three tracks are wonderful pop songs with outstanding harmonies and harmonics, graceful strings, mournful keyboards. After the middle-of-the-album dip, it picks up again with the wonderful tracks Spirit and Impossible, complete with guitar crank-ups and tempo changes. Whilst the singer is not faultless, his slightly off key falsetto voice somehow suits the music. His lyrics draw inspiration from early 20th century literature, but you would have to know as much as he does on the subject to appreciate them fully. Someone should lend him some money, so that he can go to the pub to actually buy the drink that he finally decides he needs in Losing Haringey.
48

reviewed by

Richard Norbury
40

reviewed by

Jon Taylor

Too few ideas to make it stand out

Another one of Neil's homespun faves. Some nice sounds, but too little variety to really make an impression.
34

reviewed by

Glyn Lewis

I realised I did want a drink after all

2-7

6-8-9-10-11

The sound on the album is such a tight, defined and restrained one that the few times there's a bit of cutting loose (a couple of guitar solos and a bit of more full-on singing) it seems to unbalance the structure. Mixing in an upbeat rhythm or any instrument with a vaguely modern timbre feels like it would dominate and unsettle the thing completely, so I guess it's just as well they didn't. Consequently, though, I can't help feeling they have painted themselves into a corner with their approach on this, there really is no possibility of respite from their one sound and if, like me, that sound is not your thing then this feels like a very long album.

Like the music, the lyrics take a down beat and one paced line. Losing Haringey is the one that is more immediately audible and I'd have to say I'm not as convinced of the lyricist's ability as I feel he might be. A sort of stream of consciousness spoken ramble about various points of reminiscence all remembered at once, it really doesn't amount to anything beyond the self-satisfied and self-absorbed. It starts with a line about him having no money for the pub and confusingly ends with him realising he did want a drink after all. So either he’s come across some loose change mid-vocal or else even he hasn't bothered to follow his own thinking, I'll let you decide. Likewise, the opening number, with what you would think would be a universally easy to sympathise with theme of a relationship breakdown, has lines about feeling like walking on trampolines and strange geometries that I struggle to believe would resonate with anybody else, and it certainly didn't with me.

The second number, Make You Mine, however, is a wonderfully crafted piece and shows what they are capable of, also there are nice string arrangements and obvious care is taken throughout, but overall it doesn't really feel like enough is happening to keep one's attention. Still, come on you Bees.