Search - VNV Nation :: Futureperfect

Absolutely Perfect

Clarissa | Ontario, California | 05/29/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If I could I wouldn't change a thing about this album! Although I'm quite a fanatic now 'Futureperfect' was my introduction to any kind of Industrial music. I downloaded "Beloved" from the Internet and the first time I heard that song I was positively floored! The words are somewhat melancholy but the bittersweet lyrics are interlaced with melodic EBM and passionate vocals by Ronan Harris and it is the best ballad I have yet to hear by any Industrial band. I tend to gravitate more toward female voxes but he's quickly become a preference of mine. In fact, just behind Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode he is my favorite male singer.A lot of people associate Industrial music as being repetitious with no emotion but I can assure you that not all groups in this genre sound remotely close to that description. There are many feelings to be felt in VNV Nation's music. 'Futureperfect' doesn't even start with any type of dance beat. Lush string orchestrations open on "Foreword" with a powerful message spoken in English, German and then French (or at least I think) before diving into a pounding rhythm. There are plenty of hits here destined for the Gothic club scene but they truly shine their brightest on their slower numbers. "Holding On", for example, is a moving song and one of their strongest deliveries with gorgeous synth lines and piano chords mingling in with the ever-changing cadence (tempo). Many beautiful instruments can actually be heard throughout the elaborate sequences of this album but whatever your inclination there's enough here to keep any Industrial fan entranced. From start to finish this record is a glorious triumph... There's no need for skipping tracks, that's for certain. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS! {FYI: VNV stands for "Victory Not Vengeance"}"

Another electronica/industrial synth great album

Petar Vodogaz | Sydney, NSW Australia | 07/13/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Next to 'Empires', this CD 'Future Perfect' is a journey through electronica genius thanks to one very talented musician Ronan Harris who incidently does the lyrics and vocals for the music he mixes and produces to great quality and quantity. The songs are great dance rhythms or better yet chillout trance songs to lay down to. My favourite song of VNV is on this CD release and that song is probably the more industrial and moody song on the album 'Holding On'. This song explores the interlinked relationship we hold with each other and this fragile planet. The lyrics for this song is a standout. The songs 'Genesis' and 'Structure' carry the album with decent high pitched industrial synths. The last song 'Airships', ends the album with a moving tribute to the human race. Overall this album is a must for any fan of trance electronica or industrial music. These two genres are fused together very well here. Thanks Ronan for such a A+ album."

In retrospect, not a masterpiece -- but excellent nonetheles

J. Rayne | Salisbury, MD United States | 03/21/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Futureperfect" is one of those grand experiments that is destined to polarize fans, who will view it as either a masterpiece or an abject failure. In this case, I think it was a resounding success, albeit one with a few minor quibbles. Stylistically, this marks a departure from VNV's earlier albums in a way that's really hard to capture. Even though their work is essentially 100% electronic, their older albums always had the feeling that they were relics, antiquated. Starting with this album, everything is oriented towards the future instead of the past -- it sounds necessarily electronic rather than accidentally so. It's partly a shift from classical themes, like the recurrent themes of Rome on some of their older albums, to full-on modernity.



However, this album also sets up some unhappy legacies. For one, all of their subsequent releases are downhill from here, and largely because they all feel like they are in one way or another derivative of this album. Also, this album is really the catalyst that set off futurepop as a full-blown subgenre, which is an atrocity in and of itself. But to judge this album entirely based on its halfhearted imitators would be unfair, so we must examine it on its own merits.



The "intro" track is a panglossal admonition that is musically uninteresting. Perhaps it would have been better as just words without the backdrop? Even so, its message of universality is a little diminished by the fact that the message only repeats three languages -- all western, European ones at that. Feels a little contrived. I usually skip it.



"Epicentre" is really the prime mover, and move it does. This is a near-perfect blend of club sensibility, dramatic (but not drama-filled) lyrics, and excellent presentation. However, its real strength is a setup for "Electronaut," which even as an instrumental is probably one of the best songs they've ever done. And even more bizarre is the utter exuberance one feels seeing it performed live. A true masterpiece of its kind, whatever kind it may be.



And then, just to remind you that they're not perfect, they follow the best song on the album with not one but two bits of fluffy, bland filler. No matter how good the sandwich is, if there's a slice of cardboard in it, it ain't perfect. Two slices, and I'm starting to wonder how much I paid for it. "Liebestod" is dull. I don't know if they're real strings or synth-strings, but I haven't listened to it enough to find out or care. If I wanted to hear a proper string arrangement, I'd go listen to something that sounded decent. Barber's "Adagio" comes to mind. And "Holding On"...don't get me started. Ronan's vocals sound forced. The delivery isn't good. The synth-choir in the background is also bad. The lyrics aren't even anywhere up to par. Ronan can do slow, sad songs very well. His vocal version of "Forsaken" from the Solitary EP is a shining example of this fact. This is nothing like it. Avoid at all costs.



To make up for it, they drop another bomb out of the blue -- the ponderous, slowly pounding "Carbon," which does everything right that the last two songs failed to do. It's a real gem, another of their best. The music is layered and methodical; in fact, it's a real sonic departure from just about anything they've done previous to this album.



The next track, "Genesis," is the "big single" but it took some time to grow on me. It's a really pounding song, fairly abrasive for a VNV single, but the repetitive samples and the somewhat lackluster lyrics kept me away for a long time. Still, it's not a bad song, but it could have been better. "Fearless" sets up the first in the chain of fast, repetitive, kinda-aggressive tracks that occupies the nether-regions of every VNV album to follow ("Entropy," "Nemesis," et al). Again, not a bad song per se, but nothing to write home about. And "Structure" occupies the "noise" space that they occasionally decide to fill, a la "Fragments," and frankly it's not a bad piece but again, nothing spectacular.



"4 AM" is a brief vignette that provides a transition from the pulsing noisefest of the last track to the ambivalent ballad of "Beloved," which is one of those songs I keep vacillating between liking and disliking, much in the same way that Ronan seems to vacillate between love and loss over the course of the song. Again, like the last run, it's not fantastic, but maybe that's because they had to fire their biggest salvo early with some of their best songs -- if they weren't there for comparison this might sound better. Still, the song has its high points, definitely. The alternation between the quiet, anticipatory parts and the quick dance-y parts works in its favor by keeping it interesting and defraying its relative length.



By the time the coda rolls around, you're not really sure what to expect, and "Airships" delivers one of the few genuinely optimistic and happy VNV tracks to date, and almost certainly one of the only ones to not fall flat on its face. In that regard, it's a comparatively good track, and a suitable closure for this album.



In all, while it may seem like I'm a little more critical of many of the tracks on "Futureperfect," it is only contrasted to how great its high points really are. If I hand you a pile of precious and semi-precious stones, you might only notice the diamonds and emeralds, even though the amethyst and onyx are pleasing in their own right. Still, the album is not without its faults, and unfortunately we're still waiting for a worthy successor. One of these days, I'm sure the band will get back on track...or they'll release another album as bad as "Matter+Form" and I'll finally motivate myself to kick the habit."