Viva Voce - The Heat Can Melt Your Brain

  by Geraint Jones

published: 23 / 7 / 2005

---

Arriving some 9 months or so after its original US release, ‘The Heat Can Melt Your Brain’, Viva Voce’s second album, though their first to be released in the UK, arrives with good plaudits already in tow, which seems entirely appropriate for a band whose Italian name translates as “by word of mouth”. Originally from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, the band or more precisely, married couple Kevin and Anita Robinson, are now based in Portland, Oregon, since moving there several years ago. Opening with ‘Alive With Pleasure’, a previous single, it’s undoubtedly the album’s highlight, and is a stunningly effective example of the duo’s inventive, eclectic approach that belies its DIY conception. As the album progresses though, it’s evident things don’t hang together quite as well as that early promise suggested. While Viva Voce are undeniably clever and often display an appealing gift for off-kilter pop music, their occasionally propensity to be indulgent and grating can be contrastingly off-putting. ‘Center Of The Universe’ another former single, and reminiscent of the Flaming Lips at their loopiest, snaps at the heels of the duo’s most exhilarating moment and there’s no denying that ‘Mixtape=Love’ is 3 minutes of sublime dreaminess in anyone’s pop vocabulary. Elsewhere though, ‘Business Casual’ in particular completely fails to get off the drawing board, coming across as little more than half baked at best and downright annoying at worst! Fortunately the set closes in positive fashion, missteps mostly forgiven and forgotten. ‘They Never Really Wake Up’ clocking in at just over 6 minutes in length is a quite lovely extended slice of ethereality, its measured rippling bass motif and slow precise handclaps proving reassuringly hypnotic. Much like an English summer, I doubt there’s any likelihood anyone will get dangerously hot listening to this, yet there are still enough sunny moments to make it worth remembering.

Track Listing:-

1 Alive with Pleasure
2 Lesson No.1
3 Business Casual
4 The Lucky Ones
5 High Highs
6 Daylight
7 The Center of the Universe
8 Free Nude Celebs
9 Mixtape = Love
10 They Never Really Wake Up

Label Links:-

https://www.youtube.com/user/FullTimeHobbyRecords
http://www.fulltimehobby.co.uk/main/
https://www.facebook.com/FullTimeHobby
https://twitter.com/fulltimehobby
https://plus.google.com/101265945502860799533

Post A Comment

---

Comment

Name

your name

Location

ie London, UK

Submit

Check box to submit

Adam Coxon
Adrian Janes
Adrian P
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Carl Bookstein
Chris O'Toole
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston

Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson
Dixie Ernill
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank

Keith How
Kimberly Bright
L. Paul Mann
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart
Malcolm Carter
Marie Hazelwood
Mark Rowland
Nick Dent-Robinson
Nicky Crewe
Owen Peters
Richard Lewis

Shirley Procter
Spencer Robertshaw
Steve Kinrade
Steve Miles
Tommy Gunnarsson
Zena Grieg