Tram
A Kind of Closure
Jetset
Tram play very soft, lost, and wandering melancholy pop music, a la O.K. Computer-era Radiohead; their music is completely and totally beautiful, with the lead singer sounding, at times, very much like Siouxsie Sioux from Siouxsie and the Banshees ( I didn’t get a press sheet, so I don’t know if the singer is a boy or a girl). Make no mistake about these guys, though, because this is music for dark moods and sad reflection.
I must admit that I think this is a completely and simply wonderful album, from start to finish. Imagine taking the saddest parts of Low, Portishead, Codeine, Smog, and Radiohead, placing them into a large cauldron, stirring and pouring it into mold in the shape of razor blades… you get the idea. These guys share a label with Mogwai and Luna, so you know they’re in quality company. The thing is, where Projekt and Cleopatra Records bands fail at making the listener want to cry, these indie rockers do through their honesty; I love it!
The main instruments here are the aforementioned Thom Yorke/Siouxsie Sioux vocalist, lightly strummed guitars, lightly brushed drums, piano, horns, and other weird noises. The mood created by these instruments is just so debilitating sad and longing that this rivals anything Edith Piaf did in her career! This album is wonderfully sad, brooding, lost, and hopeless; how can you not like that?
Jetset Records: http://www.jetsetrecords.com