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The Penelopes
Eternal Spring
Vaudeville Park Records
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Think late 70’s, early 80’s, and all of the paths that led to early 80’s pop. The Penelopes took those same paths, which makes it irresistible to do what many reviewers shy away from – comparing. They have been compared to everything from The Beatles to The Jam to XTC to Aztec Camera, and I can’t help myself, I’m going to have to do it as well, this band just screams The Housemartins/Beautiful South to me. I hear them particularly in the voice of lead man Tatsuhiko Watanabe and in how it blends in so well with the smooth upbeat pop.
Track listing:
01 Vehicles
02 Let's Get Going Again
03 Heart and Soul
04 From Head to Toe
05 Book of Brilliant Stings
06 Dreams
07 Love Is
08 Girl with a Golden Heart
09 In the Land
10 Mrs. Meadow Rue
11 Twinkle in the Rain
12 Midday Stars
13 Carnival of Slight
14 Generosity Knocks
15 Spilt Milk
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The band has been at it since their inception in 1990 when they took their name from a character (agent Lady Penelope) from the show “The Thunderbirds” and honed their sound to this, Eternal Spring. And it does ring of an eternal spring, there are so many upbeat riffs, bouncing bass lines, and poppish keyboard chords as well as flowery themes. You don’t have to search far to find this, just looking at the titles gives some indication - “Love Is,” “Dreams,” and “Midday Stars” to name a few. And like the flashing of stars and the fleeting of dreams, you hear bits of sweet lines weaving in and out of their songs. Why only bits? Well, because everything does blend so…thoroughly, almost too thoroughly. They do a good job singing in English, but what makes a lot of the lyrics incomprehensible is this blending and the overall sound, a sound that keeps it from being too sweet. While the sound redeems the band of being sappy, I still have mixed feelings about it. There’s something unusual and a little dark about it, and not in a good way, more in a technically poor sound quality way. Okay, you know that local band sound…the one of that one local band that’s been at it for 15 years…the one of the band that does write good melodies but has something awry? The Penelopes have that sound, and at the risk of using way too many comparisons in one review, one band that comes to my mind with a sort of similar sound is The Mighty Lemon Drops, sans the extreme bizarreness. The Penelopes have dipped these sweet, upbeat songs into the dark cauldron that is this sound. I don’t know that they would be better off with a different one, but something could be tweaked, because overall, I have to say it’s an average album in my opinion, despite some obvious talent in the songwriting.
-Jennifer Hall 03/24/04
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