Cold Cave, I Love You, but You're Bringing Me Down
By Nicole on November 8, 2009 in mp3blog
Cold Cave is the phoenix that has risen from the ashes of likeminded synthpop revivalists Xiu Xiu and Prurient. The group recently released "Love Comes Close" on Matador Records, and the band's gloomy, barebones electronica captures the detached aesthetic characteristic of early Factory Records, the Manchester based label that transformed the heretofore gritty, impoverished industrial wasteland into the epicenter of the British music scene in the early eighties. Cold Cave is based in New York and perhaps this invocation of this signature sound reflects New York's current malaise in midst of America's financial crisis. As James Murphy aptly said, "New York, I love you, but you're bringing me down." (Also see the enduring relevance of this prescient Joan Didion essay:Goodbye to All That)
The album's title track evokes "Corruption, Power and Lies" era New Order, and fully ensconces the listener in a aural milieu of modern despair. Caralee McElroy (formerly of Xiu Xiu)gives the following track "Life Magazine" an infectious sweetness with her melodic, feminine vocals, which is redolent of the decidedly more upbeat Saint Etienne. In sum, Cold Cave encapsulates a sophisticated, urban world-weariness in their music that is both the perfect soundtrack to the current economic downturn, and provides a glimmer of hope that an end is indeed in sight.
Love Comes Close
Life Magazine
Youth and Lust
Post Comment
