Blue Album

 

 

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Let me first tell you, I am a fan. I have been from the beginning so this being their final album I felt compelled to get it. The sticker on the Cd called it their final album, but you gotta wonder if they decided that half way through making it! The last couple albums, I have managed to like, love or at least appreciate everything on them, contrary to some, but this sadly isn't the case on the Blue Album. Granted the first two tracks are great, but the fourth track is a perfect example of what's wrong. The song builds and layers in classic InSides-era style, slowly and just when you'd think they are gonna add to it and bring it up to the level of In Sides, it fades and you're left with the feeling that the song was half baked, partially finished. The collaboration with Sparks is a completely derivative and annoying acid track that harkens back to countless compilations from 1993. It's a real toss off track if it wasn't so annoying to the point of pushing you to violence. Sunrise, the last track featuring Lisa Gerrad, one of my fave vocalists, merely hints at the greatness they've manages with Alison GoldFrapp in the past. It almost sounds like someone doing a tribute to their fave band, Orbital. You know it's time to call it quits when you're a mere shadow of your former self. I'd never thought I'd say this, but save your cash and get something else, The Altogether or Middle of Nowhere, maybe. But for me Snivilization, In Sides, The Box Ep and the Saint single are the apex of their career and can't be beat! Ironically this CD came on the same day as the new one from the Orb, Bicycles and Tricycles. Perhaps not the same sub-genre but certainly from the same era, The Orb manage to create something new and move forward after all these years, something I truly hoped for from this last CD of Orbital.

Orbital have never released an album that "fits" into the period in which it was produced. This album is no different and therefore, anybody who knows at least any two songs made by Orbital will not be surprised to hear me say that there is nothing on this album that sounds even remotely like anything you expected.
"Transient", the first track on the album, immediately distinguishes itself, and the album as a whole, as something entirely different from any other work that Orbital have done. The dance anthems of their early work and the dark and brooding moods of the songs in "Insides" and "The Middle of Nowehere" is replaced by pure mood. It begins with ambience, an almost incongruent collection of beeps and drones which fans of Orbital may recognize form early songs like "Remind" and "High Rise" but grows into powerful arrangement of strings which sounds almost like a combination of Rob Dougan and Clint Mansell's musical score to the movie "Requiem for a Dream".
The following three tracks, "Pants", "Tunnel Vision", and "Lost", are similar to the song "The Box", in that they all contain the heavy and almost dominating bass beats that change subtly in a ways that keep them interesting throughout the entire song, making the music both enjoyable for casual listening as well as keeping them extremely dancable. Where these three tracks make their impression is in the melodies that run delicately through the rhythm that quickly falls out of the limelight. What were the creepy, almost vampiric harpsichord notes that were in "The Box" are chimes, which hail all the way to the song "Chime" which first garnered Orbital with the attention that has yet to grow to what they truly deserve.
The songs "Bath Time" and "Easy Serv" show the playful, and at times clownish, mood that the Hartnoll brothers made in some of their earliest songs like "Steel Cube Idolatry". Although many people complain and bitch about these two songs they are, in fact works of brilliance that surpass anything that even remotely resembles them or anything that will attempt to imitate them, like Orbital itself. People may at first compare them to theme songs for children's shows, or the background music in an ice cream commercial, but before you staple these songs to a generalization and never listen to them again, listen to the music you have compared them to and you will see IMMEDIATELY that these two songs are real jewels, they contain within them so much intelligence and depth that even most of Orbital's previous work lacks the layers held in these.
"You Lot" is a dissapointment, the varying music that fans of Orbital have grown accustomed to is replaced by the repetative voice sample done by "Sparks", it is sad, and almost painful to hear what Orbital have done here.
The last track "One Perfect Sunrise" reminds me why only began to listen to music after I heard the songs "Halcyon+on+on" and "Sad But True" (Both by Orbital). It is, by all means, one of the most emotional songs I have ever heard. The vocals, synths, drums, and build-up in this song are unbelievable. Mny people compare this song to "Halcyon", but you must consider that that song was written when Orbital were first beginning to grow, and when you hear the voice of Kirsty Hawkshaw, you can feel it, you can feel the fertility, you can feel hope, in "One Perfect Sunrise", which for me will likely be the last new song I hear from Paul and Phil Hartnoll, is and ending, you can hear that things have come to an end, with no regrets, thank you Orbital, it is, in my opinion, the greatest song to have been written after the year 2000.

This CD definitely belongs in every Orbital collection. It starts out ambient and the rest of the CD is mellow like "snivilisation" and has a few tracks that break it up with great dancable tracks (which are my personal favorites)like "Pants", "Tunnel Vision" and "You Lot"(#1 favorite), and ends very nicely with "One Perfect Sunrise"(alot like "Halcyon")I am a huge fan of Orbital and I would recommend this CD. I only give it 4 stars due to the very annoying track "Acid Pants", which is the first Orbital song "EVER", that I have had to hit the "SKIP BUTTON". Also that it is kind of a let down that it is the last ablum and it is not quite the "Grand Finale" that most Orbital Fans would have expected(which explains the previous poor ratings). But nonetheless, this is an awesome CD to listen to,and another Orbital masterpiece.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Waiting for the Laugh Track to Start....
As we are reminded over and over (and over and over and over) again in "Acid Pants" is that "when the laugh track starts, then the fun starts! Read more

Published on July 16 2004 by M

2.0 out of 5 stars sorry, but...
i love orbital. i really and truely do, but am i most definitely more of a post-snivilization kida guy. Read more

Published on July 6 2004 by Micah Levine

5.0 out of 5 stars One Perfect Band
I got the CD yesterday in the mail. I've listened to it a dozen times now. It's the best CD I've bought this year or last year. Read more

Published on July 3 2004 by Chad A. Norman

5.0 out of 5 stars BUY THIS CD!
After the last Orbital album, "The Altogether," it is refreshing to hear Orbital back to doing what it does best... Read more

Published on July 2 2004 by Crazy Diamond

4.0 out of 5 stars There's a new master of creation -- it's you!
My first exposure to the tracks on this album came in Brixton, London last week when I was lucky enough to see one of Orbital's last live shows. Read more

Published on July 2 2004 by Steve

3.0 out of 5 stars Blue prints
Of course, after In Sides (their masterpiece) it got a bit messy with Orbitals records. Shorter tracks, more bonking beats. Read more

Published on July 1 2004 by Schaeffer

5.0 out of 5 stars A classy farewell
With tracks that echo those from most previous albums, the Hartnoll brothers have brought Orbital to it's end. My first reaction to this recording was 'nice! Read more

Published on Jun 29 2004 by Adrian Rinehart-balfe

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