Rational Youth - To The goddess Electricity

Tracks:
Ludwigshafen
Pink Pills, Orange Pills
Money And Blood
Energie
Back From Madrapour
Talk To Me (I'm Only Human)
In My Imagination
To The goddess Electricity
Everything Is Vapour
The Ghosts Of Montreal
Open Your Heart

I'll be honest here...I had never heard of Rational Youth until this album was released in 1999. Then, I began to hear a number of positive things about this band, and their history. So, eventually, in spite of my misgivings about the album (mainly due to it's title), I decided to give it a try. Especially after I heard the track "Everything Is Vapour" on the Now Music For Pop People sampler volume 2, I found my interest in this band growing. So when I was one of the runners up in a recent Lexicon contest, and had the chance to get a free CD, I jumped at the chance to get a copy of this CD.

Well, upon the first listen I was really reminded of Neuroactive's "Phonic Trace" album. Mostly by the style of the vocalist, I think. Just from listening to the lyrics, I'm pretty sure there's some biting social commentary here, especially in the song "Money And Blood". It's very plain to hear that RY has a great grasp of producing synthpop music. The synths are very melodic and catchy, and enjoyable. Though the lyrics are great to listen to and think about, they're not quite as catchy as you might imagine. But that may be the point. And it's probably better to produce songs which have lyrics you can think about instead of making the lyrics solely focused on being catchy. I think RY lets the synths be the catchy part of the song, and leaves the lyrics reserved for something really important they want to say. Not to say they can't write a pop song. "Talk to Me (I'm Only Human)" and "In My Imagination" manage to both be good, catchy pop songs, and still have the really intelligent lyrics.

Overall, I really enjoy this album. It's a little difficult to just listen to casually, but it is a really well put togeather album. Also, I still am somewhat uncomfortable with the whole "goddess Electricity" thing, but I can overlook that and still enjoy this very good album.

Added:  Saturday, March 23, 2002
Reviewer:  Jason Baker
Score:
hits: 758
Language: eng