Much has been said in recent times about the death of the album, killed by our ever decreasing attention span and modern methods of acquiring and listening to music (downloading, ripping to mp3 player, re-programming the running order on a CD player et al).As a result we allegedly have developed a resistance to sitting down and listening to an album from beginning to end. Yet this is one album that thoroughly rewards immersion, patience and perseverance. It sounds so utterly perfect, from the opening to the finishing notes, each song merges seamlessly into another without sacrificing variety or the range of sounds, moods and emotions. There is a carefully thought-out process at work, one that does not sacrifice songs. Many of the twelve tracks contained on this, Electric Soft Parade’s third album, could easily stand head and shoulders above most of this years competition as classic singles, particularly ‘Misunderstanding’ with its crisp guitars and drums and beautiful vocal interplay, combined with a winning way with a melodic hook or three or ‘If That’s The Case, Then I Don’t Know’ which combines a contagious riff with a clattering monster of a rhythm section.
Electric Soft Parade are difficult to pin-down or categorise. There’s a sense of a pop classicism at work in the way different instruments combine but adventurousness in the way they utilise the pop songs basic framework to experiment. Electric Soft Parade layer in instruments including the French Horn, Cornet, Violin and Theremin, in subtle ways that enhance the songs rather than act as signifiers of ‘good taste’. Within individual songs there are often an initially bewildering array of tones, textures and time changes. ‘Woken By A Kiss’ contains buoyant upbeat verses and gentle (anti) choruses while ‘Have You Ever Felt Like It’s Too Late?’ shifts emotionally and structurally from light to dark before coming full circle. ‘Come Back Inside’ has a dark start but soon gives way to joy or the potential for it. The songs are that perfect and luxuriant.
Lyrically No Need To Be Downhearted offers a summation of the strange place Electric Soft Parade found themselves in while writing this album. Initially feted as potential ‘next big things’ they were then dropped by their label following the release of their second album. There’s a sense of confusion, loss and even regret but also of hope and joy. ‘Life In The Backseat’ with its uplifting, soaring chorus of ‘Push all your windows open wide / You’ll never know the world from inside / It could be all over and you’d never have known’; ‘If That’s The Case, Then I Don’t Know’ suggests ‘Our lives they may be miniature / But they are lives / Just the same’ all point to the potential of every day life as a source of pleasure. This, then, isn’t a bitter, life dealt us a bad hand, we hate the major’s album but a nuanced, adventurous, stunningly beautiful, life-affirming work. No Need To Be Downhearted is not only the best work Electric Soft Parade have produced to date but potentially one of the best albums of the year. They have returned with a newfound vigour and enthusiasm best summed up in the up-tempo ‘Cold World’:
I want to be rid of this feeling
I want to be a part of everything
Like the way it should be.
No Need To Be Downhearted contains just about everything you should need in a perfect album. It would truly be a cold world that ignores such a gorgeous album.