It took me longer than it should have to buy and review this latest CD by Elegant Machinery. The main problem was the very high import price, although I've seen it come down a bit recently. I knew I'd have to get it eventually, though, because I've been a big fan of E.M. since about 1999 when I bought their "Yesterday Man" album.That CD remains as one of my all-time favorites--a CD that has no filler songs at all and several standout tracks. "A Soft Exchange" is right on par with "Yesterday Man," but the highlights are even better.
"A Soft Exchange" hasn't left our car stereo since it arrived from A Different Drum, and all my kids have made me put mp3 versions on their players (yes, all my kids are synthpop fans, in addition to liking less worthy music like country, American Idol fare, etc. that I wouldn't be caught dead listening to). "A Soft Exchange" joins Universal Poplab's "Seeds" and Midnight Resistance's "Remote" as my favorite albums right now.
Here's how I rate the songs:
5/5 stars: A Soft Exchange (This is my favorite song on the CD. It sounds a little like Anything Box when they were at their best, only better.), Do You Know, Move
4/5 stars: Feel the Silence, Bleeding Words, Firm, Is This the Way, With Grace,
3 and 1/2 stars: Hold On (A very slow but beautiful song)
3/5 stars: Path of Angle (Think of this song as the intermission. Instead of vocals it features an old Speak 'n Spell toy spelling out the name of the band. It's actually one of the few non-vocal songs that I own that I can stand listening to. It's pretty fun.)
2/5 stars: NONE
1/5 stars: NONE
