posted 09/10/2005 (Sat) @ 10:52 pm
>>> Music Reviews
Catherine Wheel - Chrome (1993)
Underground (-water?) classic.
- Kill Rhythm
- I Confess
- Crank
- Broken Head
- Pain
- Strange Fruit
- Chrome
- The Nude
- Ursa Major Space Station
- Fripp
- Half Life
- Show Me Mary
“Chrome” was voted by at least one big name British rag as among the best guitar albums of all time. They’ve got it right. With a sound that’s equal parts bombast and aggression, British and nationless, and heavy by virtue of just how soaked with effects the guitars are, Catherine Wheel blossoms out of speakers.
The sonics aren’t too different from “Ferment,” the band’s first album, but the production is stronger, louder, and better mixed, giving even more room for Futter’s lead guitar storm to rain down. Dickinson’s voice is one of the most distinctive ever in rock music and perfectly suited to the kind of music this band created: spacey and bordering on angelic, but with an edge.
Sudden musical shifts from meandering melodic to flat-out rocking (”I Confess”), vivid synesthetic properties (”Broken Head”’s soaring chorus honestly creates a visual of some kind of life essence escaping from someone’s skull), and an overall love for crafting multi-layered guitar music are put on display here.
Few bands can write something as convincingly vintage and poppy as “Show Me Mary” (with very modern effects and production) and put it on the same album with epic guitar feasts like “Pain” and “Ursa Major Space Station.”
As far as androgynously poppy fuzzpop albums to come out in the early ’90s go, “Chrome” is the best, topping “Loveless” by virtue of its lack of cheesy drum machine dance rhythms and inclusion of blues-inspired guitar noise.
Tags: hard rock, metal, shoegaze
