Avant Garde - Certified & Tested

Tracks:
A Pair Of Dice (Paradise)
Won't Come Around
Watch Your Back
Missonary Of Love
So Close
In A Mood
Doctor, Doctor
Mirror To Your Soul
Her Pleasures
So Complete
Wings
Fits Me Perfect
Doctor, Doctor (Meniscus Haze Edit)
Watch Your Back (Micron Filter Clarity Mix)
Watch Your Back (Remix)

I want to say this right now: I was wrong when I labelled this band as Bubblegum pop. Though the music is incredibly catchy and poppy, most all of their songs are not lightweight fluff. Songs about gambling addiction, terminal illness and death are never lightweight fluff. I really enjoyed the 2 more literary songs on the last album ("Bilbo" and "The World Of The Ring"), and was a little disappointed to not find a similar song on this new album. Also the addition of prominent female backing vocals in most of the songs add a interesting touch to the songs. If you liked "Basic", You'll really like this CD. It's still got the same bouncy, analoguey synthpop music focus, with the new backing vocalists adding a interesting vocal texture to each song. The remixes are quite interesting, in that I don't hear heardly any of the analogue synths that are so prevalent in the original songs, but more digital sounding-synths. It's quite and interesting shift, and really makes the remixes interesting alternate takes on the songs.

Added:  Saturday, March 23, 2002
Reviewer:  Jason Baker
Score:
hits: 1320
Language: eng