Album – Almost Half Undressed – The Eisenhowers

Posted by admin on September 20th, 2006

I receive a huge number of CD’s in the mail, the majority of which are requested, after I’ve heard the band or artists on a podcast, mySpace page or website. It’s only while reviewing this album, that I suddenly realized that I receive a large proportion of CD’s from Scottish bands, which given the comparative size of Scotland is pretty amazing. I don’t know what’s stimulating this creative juice, but I don’t care, stimulate away.

Whilst you may not have heard of the Eisenhowers, Raymond Weir’s other band, Gum may be more familiar. This offering has an altogether different flavor, but you can almost detect the common thread between the two bands when you listen to this album. One of the main differences however is that here, the band is fronted by a male vocal, which does give a distinctly different sound to Gum, with it’s female vocalist Leigh Myles.

Between Gum and the Eisenhowers, it’s amazing that Raymond has time to do anything else. If all his other ventures are as well put together as this one, then the future does indeed look interesting.

This 12 track CD opens with “Useless Love”, which is wonderfully laid back, with an almost jazz flavor. The next track “Novelty Act” has an altogether more contemporary feel and is more representative of the rest of the album. 25 o’Clock reminds me a lot of Nik Kershaw’s later works. It’s that great balance of upbeat music, great lyrics and excellent delivery. Anyway I think you get my drift. If I had to pick a favorite track it would be a toss up between “If Satellites Should Fall” and the track that rounds of the album, “Plastic Jesus”.

Conclusion : A great album with a real upbeat sound. Great melodies and vocals.

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