Title:
Bugged
Artist(s):
Babybird
El-Camel's Ratings:
Label:
Echo
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Reviewer:
owen adams
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Stephen Jones says his album is about being watched and monitored, about things that piss you off, and being a bugger yourself. But was he just talking bollocks? For Bugged is a big and bouncy bundle of pure joy, almost from start to finish. It doesn't pretend to be challenging. Hot damn! It's traditional, for the most part euphoric, pop music. It's hard to comprehend what goes on inside Babybird's creator's head. He's always struggled not to be a pop star, projecting himself as a poet, and an ironic one at that. You're Gorgeous, almost against his will, transformed him briefly into a household name. Gorgeous' murderously dark intent was swamped by an army of scarf-waving anthem fans. But that moment of candy-coloured fame sent Babybird burrowing underground, and in the interim before Bugged, treading a morose path. But his journey has led Babybird to a world of mandarin trees and marshmallow pies, of unadulterated happiness. A world where innocence and child's play rules. Bugged can be joyous fun fun fun, with the old sadness creeping back in from time to time. There is that occasional uneasy moment, when the ice cream van's shut up shop and it's begun to drizzle.
There's cathedral-sized ballads like new single Out Of Sight, the introspective Fireflies, the Mondays-style swamp-funk of Eyes In The Back Of Your Head and the arms-in-the-air shoutalong playground ditty The F-Word. Bugged is an album full of eclectic instrumentation, a hint of post-rock weirdness coagulates with the familiar. A steel guitar, a beatbox, and effervescent guitars wrap themselves round Jones' sweet-as-molasses, yet firm and strong-willed voice. On another ballad, Getaway, it's like Gone With The Wind, as the brass erupts and you're lifted to another plane.
Stephen Jones has hinted that Bugged may be his swan song. He's come to the conclusion that no one's interested in his Babybird project any more. It could be just pouting on his past, but admittedly, the album does sound out of sorts, like just missing the zeitgeist and only existing in its own pink dimension.
Oilzine Members Reviews
Bugged
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UserID:
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benny |
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Ratings:
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Review:
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I prefer listening to birds whistling in the evening |
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Posted:
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11/06/01 14:49:03 |
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