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This album is the debut of one of the most amazing, unique and influential trip-hop bands ever. If you're into trip-hop, this CD is simply a must. Rhodes' voice is beautiful and so idiosyncratic, the electronics are so progressive and the sound of the jazzy double-bass is simply irresistible. It's a shame though that Lamb is no longer together as a band.
Overall this album is a great mix of drum n bass with a bit of jazz, some trip hop and a beautiful voice. Lamb seems to get compared to everyone from "Olive" to "Baxter" to "Spicehouse" to "Hooverphonic".
A lot of reviews say the lyrics are not very good. This is a good CD.
"Lusty" and "Zero" are both great songs, and so is the rest of the album, This cd is full of compelling vocals and great beats. Well they are not as bad as people say, any way this kind of music is More about moods and sounds, and Lamb really deliver in those departments.
I am still glad I bought this CD. I think Lamb are totally unique and have no connection to Anyone but themselves.
A great addition to any modern music collection.
Which is why they only receive 93(just above an A minus) out of 100 in my book. Now of course they couldn't keep you up on such a climax so after "letting you inside their house", they give you a tour of the rooms.
Outside of this personal affiliation I make with the album, it is on its own a great record, borderlining on excellence.One of the best things about this album is its flow. I was introduced to this album from the first girl I ever felt sincere love for, so yeah it has a sentimental quality to it.
It only gets better and better. The first tune, Lusty, is fantastic, really introducing you into the sound and the feel.only to be pulled in even more with the second track, Godbless.
By the time you reach Cottonwool, you feel impressed by weary that since most albums dont continue so strongly the third track should be less than the previous two.wrong. The album has no real flaws, though you end up feeling that it could of been better though.
But of course, few albums score the required 97% to be considered a Masterpiece (Check Maxinquaye for such brilliance)
That's what I like about Lamb; the acknowledgement that she's an instrument all to herself, haunting in some rights seemingly delicate in others, because this approach allows her to become something akin to the heartbeat of the song itself. There are mad shuffling beats here and there, silent and then frantic in songs like Cotton Wool, and yet Rhodes is there singing about love and offering a heart and it all seems to make sense. The first song I hear her carry was "God Bless," and I thought that it was beautiful. God, I like that song enough not to try to describe how pretty it is.There's another side of that emotional scope too, with the other the emotive sonnet sometimes echoing a very believable pain. Sometimes they are beautiful things too, like the fluttering sigh of a butterfly in the breeze or the brush of a storm touching dry skies. and sometimes they scream like shadows in the delicate words the broken cry. Louise Rhodes has a beautifully suited sound, touching my mind in a way that makes me want to sigh when she sings about love and agree with her when she sings about hardship, and it meshes all-so-well with beats specifically tailored to carry that talent. I also have to note the warm embrace of tracks like Gold when I cite something lovely, the fondness brought out in a track like Closer, and beautifully-written songs like Gorecki.
And Feela talks about the pain that comes when something is over, when tears are shed and the world seems broken, and its minimalist beat and lyrics convey that so well. There are also deep symbols-n-bass beats that move through almost dark motions, with Trans Fatty Acids working as an example of that, and she still stands above it promising that she'll protect the heart from winter's chill. "This could have been something, this could have been really something, tell me something more, tell me something more worth living for." It seems - painful - when that songs bleeds to stage.I'm not really sure what else should be said about someone that talented, save that her musical compatriot is equally-gifted when it comes to the motions of the beat. As I listened I noticed she was doing something odd for a drum-n-beat song too, singing about love as the song modified in its complexities and doing it well. In that right Rhodes does something that alot of other musicians can't, finding depths and points deeper still, and crafting emotions out of words. Rhodes carries that just as well as she does love and adoration, speaking hymns of loneliness like a believer, and those little drifts are so full.
There was so much motion in the tune, the beat shuffling with little motions and a drum-n-beat soul, and yet she was in the center, like calm in the storm. And I found myself happy with it, thinking "yeah, I know exactly what she's saying." "Here's to happiness." This introduction wasn't a fluke, either, because so much of what Lamb is sounds just like that. Zero is a song that speaks an aloneness that many can agree with because it sparks what hearts truly feel when they hurt or are alone. And the albums keep this tempo, getting better as time progresses.
It appears that only one other reviewer (so far) has noticed this, or is bothered by it. The music is excellent. But, even the (almost constant) stream of lyrical cliches would have been forgivable, had it not been for the utter preposterousness of the singers delivery. No arguement there. But for me the experience of listening to this is totally soured by the risable, adolescent lyrics. She sings her lyrics with all the delusional conviction of a tiresome 14 year old, utterly convinced she has 'had these, like, amazing mysterious thoughts' and it is her compelling destiny to bestow new truths on us all. Oh dear.
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