Micachu - Jewellery (Rough Trade)
5/5
By: Thomas Hannan
BUY DOWNLOADI'm about to write a review of an album and not mention another band in it whatsoever. It's quite a liberating feeling - none of that 'like X making love to Y in Z's rehearsal room - on acid' stuff here. Micachu and the Shapes, honestly, don't sound like any other bands. Not any that I've ever heard at least. And I must have heard most of them, by now..?
Micachu and the Shapes are using the same instruments as other bands have - there's a drumkit, a laptop, and a guitar. But I've not heard synths programmed this crunchily before, drums played with this much 'I really couldn't give a f**k' before. In my life, I've heard guitars played with things jammed in them before, but I think even Thurston Moore would give this a listen and exclaim 'Kim, you gotta check this chick out!' at the top of his lungs. I've heard a vacuum cleaner before. But not on a pop album.
Think to yourself, and think hard - when was the last time you heard a really well produced, delicately thought out, lo-fi album? Have you ever heard one, really? Isn't the point of them that they're meant to be endearingly unlistenable, amateurish, half arsed? See how much this is turning on its head? Much of Jewellery sounds like this: KAHCAHKAHCAHTISHTISHBHXHXHXwoo! The rest of it sounds completely bloody symphonic. In fact, the noises are all part of the symphony.
The production job is impeccable - Jewellery could so easily be a mess, but in fact it's remarkably coherent. I think many are going to attribute this to Matthew Herbert, the man behind the boards who really does play a blinder in making sure all the sounds are just perfect, but I think this is the view of MEN, who aren't comfortable with the idea that the real genius here might actually be nobody else but a funny looking GIRL, who on first glance doesn't look like she could even string together a coherent sentence, let alone come up with this masterpiece. She's actually a classically trained composer - a well documented factoid. But it's rare that someone with even that amount of musical nous can arrange shrieking noises as well as they can pretty notes and complimentary melodies. Mica Levi (her birth name) has both nailed, the f**king genius.
A man called Nick Abbott has called this "the best use of distortion I have ever heard." And trust me, he'd know.
Its continual triumph aside, the opening track is probably the best thing on it - but the first note on London Calling is also the best one on that, and it didn't stop the whole thing being a classic, so don't worry yourself unnecessarily. Its job is not so much to set the scene, but to tear up any mood you might have been in, obliterate all preconceived ideas, and pave the way for the coming record. Maintain a level of healthy trepidation, yeah, but don't be too afraid - much as there are snippets of songs, compositionally weird songs and things that barely count as songs here, pop songs are on it, sounding completely f**ked, but definitely pop. It's abrasively romantic, confrontationally catchy, disarmingly wistful in places. But the only difficult thing about it is that you won't know where to place it. Revel, I dare you, in that opportunity.
It changes sound all the time, whilst maintaining a coherence that comes from only sounding like itself, and nothing else. Pace varies, texture varies, mood is rarely held but always heartfelt. Her voice sounds like an ongoing dialogue between two people called Terry and Big Dave in the Boleyn Pub on Green Street an hour before West Ham kick off, she's the toothiest grin imaginable, she enjoys all out white noise - she's the best pop star we've got.
Not only have I mentioned no bands that this sounds like, I've also not used any track titles here, because if you're going to search this out - though there are very easily digestible songs to themselves that you can remove from this whole if you want to - I really want you to hear all of this. The worst track on it does not exist. The best track on it is it, in its entirety. I've not mentioned where Micachu is from, either, because this can exist outside of a particular place or scene just fine. I can't even imagine a time, at this stage, where Jewellery will not sound both completely strange and totally thrilling. Heck, it sounds like a circus where the acrobats juggle dark matter and NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS. And what's ever going to get boring about that?
I think she could do anything, if she wanted, y'know.
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment