posted 11/09/2006 (Thu) @ 12:59 pm
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The Delays - You See Colours (2006)
Colorful, saccharine little pop record
- You and Me
- Valentine
- This Towns Religion
- Sink Like a Stone
- Too Much in Your Life
- Winters Memory of Summer
- Given the Time
- Hideaway
- Lillian
- Out of Nowhere
- Waste of Space
If you like your IHOP all syrup and no pancakes, “You See Colours” is probably the record that plays over your diabetic coma. If you can stomach it, this is unabashed pop music basking in its own sweet-toothed, kitschy luster. The new Delays album doesn’t so much fire off songs; rather, battering rams of melody and harmony. It’s a disc that conceivably could be enjoyed equally by mainstream pop listeners (more accustomed to electronic tinsel and ornament in their music) as well as more demanding fans of well-crafted indie pop. Bubblegum swallowers are going to fatten up quick with “You See Colours”; more than anything, the music suggests that the main thing to remember is to have a good time listening.
Principle songwriter and vocalist Greg Gilbert makes that easy– he can hit high notes with a tonal purity that would make Bellamy or Buckley blush, but holds enough in reserve for crunchy vocal caterwauling should the situation call for such. “You See Colours” begins with an a capella figure breaking into a synth-string-aided toe-tapper (”You & Me”), immediately followed by the “My Sharona”-ish “can’t help but dance to it” groove of “Valentine.”
“This Town’s Religion” plays like a bizarre lovechild of REM and Joy Division, and tunes like “Lillian” are surefire subconscious classics, full of riffs and “oooh-whooo” melodies that stick to even the most non-stick cynical of minds. Sure, a few bland by-the-numbers numbers (”Winter’s Memory of Summer”) can bring down any record. But back them up with the pistoning “Out of Nowhere,” with its eight mile high keyboard, swaggering backbeat and well-placed, muted guitar, and hardly anyone will notice.
By the time “Waste of Space” starts to spin some drama with confident, simple guitar chords (supported by a twist of La’s in the cracking vocals), it’s easy to call this record “brilliant,” even if that just means shiny with sun-soaked melodies. It’s superb Beatles pop wired on caffeine, bouncing off the walls of a studio filled with electronic keyboards. And as might be expected, that is so, so sweet.
