Skunk Anansie- Wonderlustre: Review

So I've finally gotten around to it; the Skunk Anansie album Review. Before I being with the review proper, I'll just mention a few words about the band. They were originally around in the 90's but split up after a while. Reforming recently they played some festivals (of which one of them was Sonisphere Knebworth 2010 where I saw them) and are now on tour (or soon to be). Ok, the new album, released September 13th by V2 Records, is called Wonderlustre and has 12 tracks. In this entry I will discuss my feelings about the album track by track.

The first track: God Loves Only You, starts with a melodic intro, shortly introducing a heavier section then returning to a quieter part. This is a classic Skunk Anansie technique, and always makes for a powerful song makeup, where verses of a lower volume are interspersed with louder, heavier, choruses. It culminates in a brilliant opening song, that will be in my head for a while to come.

Onto the second song. Opening with a lovely guitar riff, My Ugly Boy, is reminiscent of We Love Your Apathy from the album Stoosh. Skin's talent is shown here, her ability to deliver crisp vocal tones whilst making every word cry out is very well executed. A fantastic second song.

Onwards to Over The Love. There's some nice guitar work in the background of this track, nothing too difficult but exactly what the song needs, it really fits well. A relatively short song at 3:27, but then in relation to the album it's pretty average. Most of the tracks on Wonderlustre hover around the 3:30 mark, meaning each song has to be punchy to have an effect. So far all the tracks have done so admirably.

Fourth track now; Talk Too Much. The guitar work in the long introduction is exquisite, as is the build up that follows; with vocals, guitar and drums bringing the tone of the song up and down seamlessly- another Skunk Anansie classical technique. There's some violins playing in the background of the song in places, which is an interesting choice. It works well in my opinion.

The intro to The Sweetest Thing is rather interesting, incorporating a very trebley guitar and a pounding drumbeat. In fact, the whole song is interesting, seemingly a break from the tone of the album. The style is quite different to any of the songs before it on the album. Also the song incorporates backing vocals which complement, rather than compete with, Skin's lead vocals. Different, but by no means a bad choice.

It Doesn't Matter- the sixth track, is a crowd pleaser. I can imagine this getting the crowds on their feet, not that they wouldn't be already. Dynamically this piece works very well, with loud chorus complementing quieter verse and vice versa. A great song, a bit short though in my opinion at 2:46; it could have done with an extra half a minute or so. I'm guessing it'll be played longer at live shows.

The seventh track is called You're Too Expensive. It's got some great lyrics: "Tell me to how to fall out of love with you" being one of them. More good guitar work on this track, similar to that on some of the rest of the album.

The next song, My Love will Fall starts with a bass intro which initially reminds me of Twisted on the album Stoosh, but it doesn't launch into a heavy section right away. It's a good track, but could possibly have done with a heavier chorus, I'm not sure.

Starting off with a quite intro without drums, You Saved Me starts off in a quiet mood for quite a while, but ascends to a peak at one point. One of the softer songs on the album, but still a good listen.

Now here we go with a more Stooshlike track, Feeling The Itch begins with heavy guitar and that guitar returns again and again. More than a good track, Feeling The Itch is definitely one of the best tracks on the album, if not the best itself. The ascension to soaring vocals and climbing guitar is fantastic, all the while the bass and drums pounding the beat. A brilliant track which would definitely be good live.

The penultimate song, You Can't Always Do What You Like, starts with a long stretch of double picking guitar. After this intro the song changes somewhat before reverting back to the original guitar. The chorus is great, the vocals flying perfectly. There's a few seconds of lead guitar, the closest the album comes to a guitar solo, which have a nice effect. A really good song.

And then there's the finale. I Will Stay But You Should Leave brings the album to a close nicely. All parts fit together perfectly to make a track that seems to act as a fade out for the album, not to say it's not as good as the rest, it's slower tempo brings the album to an end nicely.

Overall impression? Really good, not a bad track on the album which is always a good thing. My favourite track is Feeling The Itch, and I think that's my only real criticism of the album, I would have liked one more track like that, although I suppose It Doesn't Matter (the sixth track) is similar in some respects. So I'm not really sure, it could have done with another track on the heavier side of the album, but equally it's a great album anyway. I'm not going to go an give it a mark out of ten, because I'm not entirely sure what I would say. As for how it compares to previous albums, the only other Skunk Anansie album I know well is Stoosh, which I have to say is my favourite of the two, but this is by no means a bad album, quite the contrary.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Cheers,

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