Red - Music (Guillemots)

It can be difficult to know how to condition yourself as a Guillemots fan. First there was Through the Windowpane, a great English pop record full of classy melodrama and widescreen elation, then there were the wilfully eccentric live shows, known to descend into mind-boggling bouts of freeform jazz bombast. And now there is Red, yet another altogether different dragon. You can talk about forcing a square where a circle should be, but this is more like teasing a dodecahedron through a drinking straw. And yet with slick feline agility they somehow wriggle through with little resistance. To get a measure of the differences, penultimate track "Don't Look Down" is one of a few that holds a torch for the first record, leading in with the keyboard twinkles and filmic slow pace, but implodes midway like a fully-laden milk float combusting, and comes out the other side like the Annie cast on helium set to a drum 'n' bass beat. Amazingly, it's as palatable as ever. But that's just for starters. "Kriss Kross" is the hitherto undiscovered melding point between 2Unlimited (of brief 90s techno infamy) and The New Radicals' chiming pop, "Big Dog" is bright lights arena R&B, robotic seduction with a Jacko scream at its heart, "Get over It" is glittery, steroid pumped modern glam and "Last Kiss" is Tubular Bells with distorted bass funnelled into a rave anthem. The whole album's a curveball, but the quality of the songs is undimming and maybe we just got a little closer to discovering what Guillemots quintessentially are. Or maybe not. --James Berry

Customer Reviews of Red

Don Panik
Cambridge UK
9th October 2008

I just hate copy protect CDs
The other reviews on here concentrate on the music. Opinion is divided on whether this is a great record or a bit of a mess. My view it has some great moments but is at times a bit self indulgent. But then I loved the debut CD so it had a lot to live up to.

My main point is of a more technical nature. I believe that if I buy a CD I should be able to copy it to my mp3 player. I quite like to do a CD-R for the car as well - so the original doesn't end up scratched. Now clearly the 'music industry' would prefer that I can't do that. And so under the guise of providing enhanced content (a rather poor quality video promo which starts up when you put the CD in your PC), they make it next to impossible to get a decent quality rip. I buy a lot of CDs. They sound better on my rather good stereo system than downloaded mp3s. I am less inclined to buy a CD if I can't copy it. It is now childs play to download illegal mp3. Record companies - you do the maths. Potential purchasers you have been warned.

odditymagnet
UK
19th June 2008

Gets better with every listen
Gorgeous rich sound - very similar to the accoustics when I went to see the band play live at the Southampton Guildhall - that may be due to the location where the album was recorded. Unpredictable melodies and key changes make this a wonderfully challenging listen and something of an emotional rollercoaster. So grown-up that poppy hits like "Get Over It" seem almost too simplistic and commercial. Awesome musicianship and highly versatile vocals. Definitely my album of the year! If you like this, check out Elbow's "Seldom Seen Kid".

Deffy 7
Portugal
19th May 2008

A reason of dissapoint
A simply poor albúm. I buy this and regreat. I send It to the trash.

L. Kirkegaard
Denmark
8th May 2008

Unique
What do you get, if you put together a bunch of well educated and driven musicians - among others an extremely gifted singer/songwriter who happens to be slightly mad? You get - ta-dah - Guillemots!

This is most certainly not easy listening, although there are actually songs on this album with hit potential. This is quick shifts, unexpected turns, wonderful surprises and grand, almost epic arrangements. This is pop-rock-jazz-musical-funk-folk-ethnic - with a twist! So you really have to keep an open mind in order to stand it. But if you can do that, you're in for a very special treat.

As many have already noted, this album is a grower. There are a few songs that catches on immediately, but most of them take a little while to sink in. Don't worry, though: They will! And when you've been captivated by the sound, you'll start to notice the lyrics and discover yet another treat.

There may be a song of two on "Red" that are no more than average, but that is acceptable considering that several of them actually deserve more than five stars.

I really belive, that I'll still be listening to this album in ten, twenty, thirty years from now.

Bob
Scotland
1st May 2008

Disappointing follow-up
I love Through The Window Pane to the point that it is probably the most overplayed album I own, but something has just gone a little bit wrong with Red. Kriss Kross is a nice track, as is Get Over It but there are some really clunkers as well, Big Dog is just rubbish and Words isn't much better. They've lost the whimsical edge that made the debut so charming, and replaced it with dodgy 80's style production and an over-reliance on funny noises. It really pains me to say it, but this is a huge letdown from a band who are capable of so much more.