Release Date: December 2, 2003
Website: www.transcendence.com
Transcendence
- Sleep With You
Matthew Ralph
In reviewing Liz Phair's latest effort earlier this year, I mentioned
how Phair unashamedly takes a hormone-driven male's approach to talking
about sex in her music. She talks about going at it all night, sleeping
with a guy half her age, sings an ode to her underwear, and even pays
tribute to semen. As fun a record as it was to review, it didn't work
then and it certainly doesn't work now. Call me a Puritan or a prude,
but music is suggestive enough these days. We don't need people
spelling it out for us in song, bragging their way to the bank about
what should really be kept between lovers.
That mouthful said, Transcendence (previously Ed Hale and
Transcendence) take up the male perspective of casual sex on their
latest record. The title track, which opens the record, says it all.
The character in the song, whether that's Hale or just some guy, sings
rather blatantly about how all he wants to do is sleep with the girl he
serenades. He's willing to do anything as long as he gets to sleep
with her at the end of the day. He doesn't want a relationship. He
doesn't want commitment. Just, as a friend of mine would call it,
hardcore swinging from the chandeliers sex.
Well gee, I never would have guessed that, guys. You have a naked woman
lying on a bed on the cover and have photographs of her in various
state of undress throughout the obsessively overdone 4-fold CD case.
Regardless of how good this guy Ed Hale is with the ladies, we don't
need to hear about it.
But do we ever hear about it. "Girls" is more or less a diary of the
singer's sexual conquests, who did what to him for the first time where
and climaxes with him worshiping the female shape and form that we
earlier in the record learn is pretty much just good for lust and
sexual desire and little else.
Behind all of the annoying male bravado that this record so unashamedly
flaunts, there is a decent record musically floating around. The band
is, after all, made up of seasoned veterans who have been at this thing
a while. Straight-forward rock with a British feel that is less dreamy
than the band's last effort Rise and Shine, the record does redeem
itself with songs that break away from the sleeping around theme, but
by the time I've listened to "Minnie Driver" I'm already annoyed to the
point where I no longer care to give them the benefit of the doubt.
posted 12.19.03
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Matt Ralph has bags full of bad CD's. Add to his collection at matt@tangzine.com
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