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 ALL
ABOUT EVE
Iceland
2002
CD
Jam Tart (via Voiceprint) AAEVP7
Circa 40:00
This is the first studio album for ten years from the 80s goth-folk band,
All About Eve. They'll hate that description, but come on, this
is the Internet and I need to pigeonhole things before your thirty second
attention span expires.
I missed AAE first time round, but I must warn those who knew and liked
them then, that this album represents a modernisation of their sound with
loops and washes. More worryingly, this officially "winter-themed" album
contains covers of 'Last Christmas' by Wham, 'Walking In The Air' from
The Snowman cartoon and 'A Winter's Tale' by Queen, making it a
sort of, ahem, Christmas album. This was a brave move, and it was even
braver to send a CDR promo to a bunch of hard-hearted cynics like us.
I can report, however, that the offending material is sufficiently treated
as to render it fairly innocuous. The hackneyed pop approach of 'Last
Christmas' is replaced with a slow dreamy sound that capitalises on the
melody but turns the song into a thoroughly AAE one. 'Walking In The Air'
- sung originally by choirboy Aled Jones - is another song with what must
be admitted is a very good melody, here deeply buried under vocoded vocals
and FX, creating a mysterious disembodied sound with intervals revealing
the underlying melody. The approach is clever: the result is excellent.
I'm not familiar with Queen's version of 'A Winter's Tale', but the one
here sounds like a 50s ballad from a children's film or a show, so not
exactly the sort of thing I'd seek out. In mitigation the voice of singer
Julianne Regan is very easy on the ears, whilst bassist and producer
Andy Cousin has ensured a smooth and professional finish.
The covers are joined by a re-recorded version of their hit single 'December'
under the title of 'December Revisited' which gives the song a treated
sound with background noise, and an even more radically remixed version
under the title 'December Amnesia Mix' which employs dance-style loops
and samples and bears little relation to the original. Fans will be particularly
encouraged by two entirely new songs: 'Cold' and 'Melting'. 'Cold' is
basically an instrumental, but not a particularly interesting one although
there are some 'almost familiar' riffs in here. As other reviewers have
suggested, it sounds rather like an intro to a song that never starts.
'Melting', however, is one of the jewels of the album and gives the greatest
scope to Julianne's vocals, here particularly sweet and intimate.
I've offended people in the past by declaring that an album is a little
soft for my personal taste, so I won't actually say that. I'm also sure
that many of our readers will like it, especially if they are already
acquainted with the group. And another thing, you could put this on at
the office party...After all, it's Christmas music, isn't it?
Rik - 28 November 2002
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