Electrelane - I Want To Be The President EP (Let's Rock)
UK release date: 22 April 2002
Electrelane, an all-girl group from Brighton, have been quietly turning ears on to their music for a couple of years now with a string of low-key releases on their own label, Let's Rock. Their brand of space rock is a beautiful thing, with calm, thoughtful moments of almost indiscernible vocals balancing film soundtrack territory elsewhere.
This EP features three very different tracks, the first and third of which are vocal efforts. I Want To Be The President picks up where Pram left off and Ladytron briefly went and melds into a superb musical arrangement with what might best be described as uniquely idiosyncratic vocals. I've Been Your Fan Since Yesterday starts as a downbeat, major chord effort with haunting vocals before dashing off at a tangent into a whirlpool of drums and analogue synth sounds complete with sci-fi-like echoes.
But it is the middle track I Only Always Think, which dispenses with lyrics completely and shows where Electrelane's genius lies - and it is in soundtrack territory. The more reflective moments from Coldplay's Parachutes and Air's latest efforts might get close to this stunning piece's instant ability to take the listener out of their own head for a moment or two, but Electrelane deliver it in classier style and manage to create more substance. It is a gorgeous, totally un-brash, completely unfabricated and quite wonderful piece of music. Electrelane deserve a lifetime's dowry for composing it. Go and buy.
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