Search - Blonde Redhead :: Fake Can Be Just As Good

Here's where I started

Stargrazer | deep in the heart of Michigan | 11/06/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Funny, a lot of people are warning new listeners away from this album...but this is where I started -- and I would describe myself as a serious fan (of all their work). Starting someone out on "Certain Damaged Lemons" may be a surefire way of producing another convert, but they'd be a little misled about where the band's sound is coming from if they were compelled to dig into the back catalog.



"Fake" is a cusp where the band began moving towards the textural brilliance of later recordings. Yet it's still possessed of the scintillating no-wave-ish guitar that characterized their initial recordings.



Maybe I love it for partially nostalgic reasons, but even when I revisit it in search of faults it rocks my socks off!"

Good can be just as fake

aarontsl | NYC | 08/04/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'm reviewing to add that this album is excellent, though it was a sleeper for me, having it for a month before I could even try listening to it a second time. The last BR album I had bought before this was "Mia Vita Violenta..." which I liked pretty much instantaneously. I guess that means that the two albums are pretty different. This album has a fairly consistent tone and sound, much like their first album. Feedback, distortion and jangled melodies give rise to Sonic Youth comparisons. (In fact one song has a chord progression that sounds just like a SY song, though I can never figure out which song.) The thing I like the best about this album is that it's packed with raw agression and energy and doesn't loosen its grip. If you like that, then I HIGHLY suggest PJ Harvey's Rid of Me, which sounds a bit like an ambush by rocket launcher."