Friday 8 February 2013

Republica [Eponymous] 

Now this was a wonderful experience today, this was actually from one of my major searches during 2012, where i sought out new musical Artists, searched through Ebay for possible new albums and directions, and bought this album, and this is its first ever spin, and i'm really pleasantly surprised, i didn't really know what to expect, but my guess was right, a Band in the style of Garbage / Elastica / Sleeper / Echobelly, Skunk Anansie to a lesser degree, but they're fairly electronic in some ways, i really like them, and they certainly have a real sense of enthusiasm and power, great tunes and musical ideas, maybe i need to buy another album of theirs.

Republica are an English Indie / Alternative Rock Band, formed in 1994, they are still going [though they broke up between 2001-2008], they made this album in 1996, and the photography throughout is by Kate Garner, the front cover showing Saffron [Samantha Sprackling] dominating the band line up, in focus while the rest are out of focus, scary hair and eye-shadow, down in some tunnel, a good use of shooting a lower hip shot, and the back cover a blurred shot, the track listing is small and hard to read though, but i like the photos.

Usually it takes a few listens before i start to 'get' an album, each time liking it more and more, but this hit me hard on the very first listen, virtually all the tracks were wonderful, but especially tracks 2, 6 & 10, and it's these i would like to talk about,
2 Bloke - A nice chugging intro, that opens out nice and louder with a beat [0:18+], and then satisfyingly even louder still [0:32+], wailing guitars come in, and a nice electronic bleeping keyboard [0:46+], Saffron's vocal delivery is really quite cockney [the band are actually from Windsor], and i just love that bubbly synth as it comes in and out, the chorus just explodes nicely [1:44+], when the second verse comes in [2:13+], it's almost KraftWerk in it's electronica, the synths really work overtime in driving the whole thing, there's a nice instrumental outro [3:54+], though the ending is a little repetitive, favourite lyric 'Fax me lunch Mr 9 to 5'.
6 Drop Dead Gorgeous - Great speed guitar at the beginning, and Saffron pushes the cockney to the limit, one of their most famous songs, and the chorus is so catchy [1:08+ & 2:11], loud and very lyrical, unlike the verses which are quite robotic, the end is singing the chorus again and again, favourite lyric 'Get out, you're walking'.
10 Holly - Similar to track 2, there's a low key intro, which then nicely explodes into a hard beat [0:14+], with a nice percussive clang going on in the background, again the chorus nicely ups the volume [1:08+], a really nice noise, great drumming, the second verse is more intense [1:37+], the fast beat more in your face, yes play real loud, i kept inching up the volume control to achieve maximum power, favourite lyric 'And sweet sweet Marilyn, a streetwise heroine'.