Lookout Mountain Lookout Sea - Silver Jews

Advantages: A very consistent album
Disadvantages: Some tracks might be too similar

...It was August 2006 and we were driving around Norway in a hired car. In our wisdom we had bought along an MP3 player instead of our usual CD walkman and discs. So we were stuck with a car entertainment system that consisted of Norwegian radio and a separate MP3 player. Mrs Cad was able to listen to the MP3 player, whilst I went stir crazy listening to circa 1980's pop music that had a nasty habit of cracking up every time I went drove over a mountain and into the next valley. After nearly five hours driving I pulled into a garage and Mrs Cad saw this CD sitting on a shelf. We bought it at a premium price for around £14 along with the Gnarls Barkley 'St. Elsewhere' album and proceeded to listen to it as we drove deeper into Fjord county. Of the two CD's we picked up that day this was and still is Mrs Cad's favourite. She has always... Read review

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Advantages: Superb songwriting, original, very deep
Disadvantages: Not the most accessible, not for everyone

...lyrics, one that begs to be deciphered. In 'Two-Headed Boy', Mangum sings straight from the heart, desperately trying to connect with the lifelike characters in his songs ("Two-headed boy, there's no reason to grieve/The world that you need is wrapped in gold silver sleeves/left beneath Christmas trees in the snow"). His voice channels the anger, sorrow and despair about the tragedies that plague his singing, but at the same time, pummel home the sheer joy of existence. No better an example can be found than in track 3, the eponymous 'In the Aeroplane Over the Sea'. The album's title song discusses death and the sheer joy of life itself ("Can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all" cries Mangum in the song's last line). Nonetheless, the album's most affecting songs are those that discuss the past and its inevitable consequences... Read review

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Advantages: Original-CHEAP!!!
Disadvantages: Possibly too wierd....

...nicely until the weird noises come back… It's not necessarily a problem with the track but the words are almost uninterpretable though I think she realised this as the lyrics are printed in the inside cover of the album. "Deer Stop" has one of the best tunes on the album but what has been done to Goldfrapp's voice is easily enough to ruin it some sort of roboticness has interfered.. This track for me is a major disappointment, it is one of the best as regards originality and harmony but the effects that have been layered over her singing are cringe worthy. I say original because the track doesn't have a synth as the dominant background instrument, a piano takes it's place though I'm not sure if it is real or not. Despite heavy criticism it is definitely listenable to. The album's name sake "Felt Mountain" is an excellent representation... Read review

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