Search - Tuxedomoon :: You

Strange, haunting soundscapes

Pieter | Johannesburg | 01/03/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The atonal semi-instrumental Roman P opens the album and is followed by The Train which sets the travel theme. Trumpet and sax are prominent throughout, although ghostly synths come to the fore on tracks like 2000 and the weird, uptempo Never Ending Story with its sinister refrain "we all need that panacea." Boxman (Mr Niles), Boxman (The City) and Boxman (Home) remind me of Velvet Underground's "The Gift" in theme at least. Conveying a sense of extreme alienation, it's a spoken trilogy about a man being possessed/obsessed by a box. Spirits & Ghosts has a lounge-jazz sound and eerie lyrics evoking a claustrophobic nightmare. The highlight and gem of the album is the title track You, most normal in structure and a magnificent interplay of trumpet, synth and sax, with beautiful wistful lyrics from a poem by Ralph Saver. This album takes the listener on a journey through a subconscious dream landscape, but besides the elegant and melodic You, there's very little here that will appeal to the general listener. But then, Tuxedomoon has always been an acquired taste."