close your eyes
 
October 7, 2002 at 9:30:00 PM CEST

[music, albums]

Montgolfier Brothers - The World Is Flat


Montgolfier Brothers - The World Is Flat They did it again.

Mark Tranmer and Richard Roger Quigley from Salford near Manchester have created another chef d'œuvre of wistful reserved chamber pop. Their first album Seventeen Stars drew me in immediately after ten seconds of listening to the song pro-celebrity standing around and I wrote a glowing review for amazon.de which I later translated here in my old blog sax & sunshine.

The World Is Flat is full of outstanding tunes and lyrics (please feel free to suggest corrections, I didn't get all of them). It has a perfect flow. Up to now my album of the year. By far by the way.

In the past months I was a little fed up with current music and wanted to stop buying CDs. This album has kindled the fire again and now I am back into music.

The World Is Flat is a soundtrack to a film on a love gone wrong. Extremely romantic and irresistible for me. In one word: precious. Everything is simple about this music:

  • the magic minimalistic tunes
  • the sensitive striking words
  • the soothing and captivating voice of Quigley

An intimate tender record I prefer to listen to with people who are very close or entirely on my own. Listening to it with strangers seems to be like an intrusion into emotional private territory. Almost frivolous in a sense.

It is one of those CDs I am afraid of ruining by playing it too often. I don’t mean the physical CD trace of course. Like all really good things in life be it sex, drugs, food or whatever this music has to be consumed in moderation to appreciate it for a long time.

The voice of Quigley and his lyrics are a very important part of this music. Gnac, ie Tranmer doing ambientish instrumentals on his own is not as thrilling.

The melancholic mood is close to Belle and Sebastian and Nick Drake but more mature and calm. If Nick Drake had lived a little longer and had had a broken up love story to sing about it would probably have sounded very much like this record.

In places the Montgolfier Brothers make me think of the baroque pop of Divine Comedy though their music is not as lush and orchestral. They don’t suffer from production overkill.

Purely instrumental music in a similar vein was made by Durutti Column though Vini Reilly doesn't have the tunefulness.

Beck who covered similar ground this year in Sea Change in comparison sounds tired and lifeless. A syrupy and sticky album, over-produced. Music just passing by, not holding the attention of the listener. A failed attempt to redo Harvest.

Coldplay, another inhabitant of this part of the musical landscape are even paler in comparison. I will never and actually don’t want to understand how a band with an insupportable falsetto singer with empty embarrassing lyrics and average tunes can have such a success as Coldplay. Whereas a nice intense voice coupled with simple but profound lyrics about relationship and breathtaking melancholic melodies stays an insider tip. That again reminds me of Nick Drake so much. I nevertheless hope and think that unlike Drake Tranmer and Quigley can live with their non-success.

A song by song account:

1 2.55 newbury It all starts with street noises again which segue into Quigley humming a light and sunny melody and the guitars and ambient synthesizer/keyboards slowly joining in. At the end a young woman with a strong Northern accent says

I'll be the apple of your parents eye.

2 the understudy This is already slower and sets the theme of the album, the ending of a relation which was doomed from the beginning.

Chances are if I could change, I’d do it all the same but differently I would have asked you early on, just what the chances were, Not sat around and wasted half a life time Understudy to the main man in your life

3 be selfish One of the highlights. It has this Cocteau Twins otherworldly night music feel. I find it astonishing that the melodic line is so simple and repeated about a million times without ever getting boring or annoying. In the beginning the guitars have this liquid cembalo sound. Together with the dominating piano they breathe a lightness into the music which is confronted by a certain gravity coming from the bass and synthesizer. The Montgolfier Brothers take all the time of the world to create a relaxed beautiful sentimental tune with a forward looking optimistic take on the situation.

Move on and leave the past behind Start thinking of your future Be selfish to be kind
There is even a winking kind of humour recited by an incredibly tender and smooth voice.
I‘ll miss the midnight rows and the morning smiles and the world feeling safe holding you the conversations fueled by gin and the angry mood it gets you in
which can also turn into sensitive despairing irony:
We’ll cry ourselves to sleep at night in separate beds

4 the world is flat The title track and centerpiece. It starts as a calmer more settled guitar song. Rather down to earth and rational. Quigley sings of how the relation was meant to be.

We will raise a family I’ll be the apple of your parents eyes and They’ll raise a glass to us and I won’t drink the bottle dry We’ll wake each morning and We’ll count our lucky stars There’s no relationship as strong as ours and We’ll share in half our problems We’ll talk our worries through There’ll be no little secrets That I hold back from you
After the piano interlude the song twists. She starts to turn away
You’ve got suspicions and You say you’ve got proof That my commitments float That I can’t speak the truth That I am lost and I am scared and The lawyer’s waiting so I meet you there
and it all turns out to have been a dream.
We’ll never share our problems Or talk our worries through and All those little secrets will make their way to you You’ll find fulfillment I’ll play and lose the way and We won’t raise that family

5 the second takes forever A meandering instrumental. The piano plays a sort of scale up and down. The atmospheric acoustic guitars are wrapped around.

6 swings and roundabouts This is something like a crossover of a lullaby and a ballad. It starts with this simple musical box theme and then the bass kicks in and this daydream chorus comes on:

I was like you I was strong Full of life and happy as the day was long Cause no one would deceive me And nothing could go wrong Head safely buried in the clouds Life and I just got around

and it finishes with these rather mysterious lyrics with new age keyboard background

Stop giving up Stop giving in And give away your secrets But keep the blueprint safe Sell your soul Don’t learn by your mistake

7 dream in organza Another intermezzo instrumental. An instrument sounding like an electric xylophone and later the piano are like colour blobs in a repetitive soundscape. Very nice background music.

8 i couldn't sleep, either A bukolic nostalgic song about the end of the relation. All which is left are memories and the question what went wrong.

I pull through the photographs And look beyond the smile Inch my way through your diary And hope to find some lies Some friend Some way to explain
The not understood break-up shows up in the music through the briefly stroken guitar chords during the chorus which don't resonate.

9 think once more One of the most impressive instrumentals I have ever heard. Calm and with a simpleness of the melody reminding me of Satie though it has a very melancholic undertone. It must be one of the musical pieces with the most chord changes. In the first two minutes I counted about fifty. They sound like a briefly screeching door and add a human almost painful touch to the track. The repeated chord changes are like a never ending hiccup.

10 inches away A worthy closer in slow motion. The album condensed into one song. It sounds like watching a rose opening its petals in the morning. Beauty unfolding very slowly. Music and lyrics can only be referred to as perfect. The metronome which can be heard throughout the song gives the song this transient character. After the end of the lyrics the song turns into an instrumental with the tune blossoming in full bloom.

I have to quote the complete lyrics as they can't be split. A love song to the beloved who leaves you.

Inches away and not knowing The space we share Keeps us both apart We will waste our whole life Just missing each other We’ll stand an eternity Just passing each other by Inches away from never been lonely A chance to share Another human being‘s time Needing to belong To something or someone Some point of reference And some peace of mind Inches away from waking beside you Seeing god’s flashlight Turn your sleep and smile into the frown As you come round The world outside spins slowly Slowly and all the time is hour Time to redress you Undress you all that time is hour Inches away from learning to master The tricks required The magic compromise I‘m failing to hold on To that precious someone Aching your way through at last once A final unintended smile Inches away from watching you leave me I never quite understand all the reasons why

 
link (10 comments)  ... comment  
 

 
last updated: 12/8/21, 5:41 PM
subscribers: 390
contact: alex63 at bigfoot dot com
40 years, 40 albums
why this is called close your eyes
some photos
status
Youre not logged in ... Login
menu
... home
... tags

... antville home
recent
...
Hier geht es weiter. Schon mehr oder weniger seit über 10 Jahren...
by alex63 @ 12/8/21, 5:41 PM
...
Der Schachchamp hieß entweder Miguel oder evtl. Manuel. Es gab noch eine ...
by alex63 @ 2/23/21, 8:55 AM

mp3 blogs/rotation etc.


Update: The most useful site in this category is the mp3 blog ...
by alex63 @ 1/26/20, 12:23 PM
...
du hast recht, die angeblichen lifetime forward mailadressen von bigfoot wurden irgendwann ...
by alex63 @ 12/20/19, 11:23 PM
...
Weil es auch mit John Lennon zu tun hat, würde ich dir ...
by klagefall @ 12/20/19, 4:12 PM
...
Ich bin doch nicht der Einzige, der die Sun Bear Concerts für ...
by alex63 @ 11/25/19, 8:54 PM

After the ecstacy, the laundry


Moments of transendence remind us of what is possible. We are here ...
by jacksawyer @ 11/4/19, 11:08 PM
...
Another phantastic release from 1991 I only discovered a couple of days ...
by alex63 @ 6/8/18, 11:05 PM
October 2002
SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031
SeptemberNovember

03/02 GIANT SAND, F, Brotfabrik............. .


they rock
music (EN)
---------------
aloof from inspiration
an aquarium drunkard
the art of noise NEW
aurgasm
the blue in the air
bradley's almanac
destination out
disquiet
dissensus
dj martian
egg city radio
eyes that can see in the dark
fingertips
i love music
an idiot's guide to dreaming
k-punk
largehearted boy
leonard's lair
misha4music
moistworks
motel de moka
musicophilia
one faint deluded smile
organissimo jazz forums
the perfumed garden
said the gramophone
silence is a rhythm too
stereogum
swens blog
utopian turtletop
vain, selfish & lazy
vinyl mine
warped reality
wordsandmusic

music (DE, FR)
--------------------
la blogothèque
euroranch
hinternet
machtdose
le musterkoffer musikstrom
satt.org: musik
schallplattenmann
die zeit - musik

other (EN)
---------------
josh blog
open chess diary
orbis quintus
the ringdahl family NEW
time4time
wood s lot

other (DE)
---------------
ahoi polloi
bahnchaos NEU
bloggold NEU
cargo NEU
chill
daily ivy
dichtheit und wahrung
einschicht
etc.pp.
filmtagebuch
goncourt's blog
herdentrieb
hotel mama
(i think) he was a journalist
jacks blog NEU
ligne claire
malorama
meine kleine stadt
mek wito
passantin
passe.par.tout
pêle-mêle dans ma tête
private collection
reisenotizen aus der realität
schachblätter
schachblog
der schachneurotiker
with or without words...
x.antville

blog bardo
---------------
the absintheur's journal
brain farts
buked & scorned
dd denkt laut
ja zu aa
the mystical beast
ohrzucker
sofa. rites de passage
sound of the suburbs
spoilt victorian child
three hundred bars
yo, ivanhoe


blogs arranged by birth date of their authors

RSS Feed

Made with Antville
powered by
Helma Object Publisher