Orwell - Continental

by Andrew Carver

published: 2 / 8 / 2011

Label: Folkwit Records
Format: CD

Flawed, but often likeable electro pop on debut album from Orwell, the project of French musician Jerome Diderot

Review

Jerome Diderot hails from Nancy, France. Recording as Orwell he follows in the footsteps of compatriots such as Air and Tahiti 80 and other synth-loving dream-poppers. He’s stuffed his album full of tinkling and beeping keyboards, electronic beats, jingling bells, plucked guitar and strings (synthetic or otherwise), all of which make an appearance on the title track that kicks off the multilingual ‘Continental’, which comes out sounding like a twee Kraftwerk. ‘Lonely Ride’ with its strummed guitar in the forefront, hammered percussion (once again, possibly synthetic) and string-laden background has a more organic feel and could be a limpid cousin to the works of the Divine Comedy. ‘On This Brightful Day’ takes a more electronic turn, and starts out as a somewhat conventional electropop tune before being enlivened by some female vocals and a burst of strings. ‘The Wife, The Battlefield’ takes a similar tack, though the contrast between the story away from his loved ones, makes a strange contrast to the music behind it. ‘Follow Me, Boy’ layers some melodica over mournful piano pop and unfortunately backs them with a singular pathetic electronic beat in slow time. ‘Easter’ makes the same error, creating an unnecessary distraction to the listener, though the rest of the tune, with its wordless vocals, sounds a bit like something from David Bowie’s Berlin period, but without the guitar muscle of Robert Fripp to back it up. The drifting dreampop of ‘Always’ makes a stronger showing, with Diderot playing multitracked vocals off each other. ‘Anytime Is Now’ kicks off with some bounce, like a less muscular early-XTC and features an extra-squiggly electronica break. It’s followed by ‘Them’, which incorporates a number of kooky electronic sounds - it seems to be trying for an Esquivel feel but doesn’t quite succeed. The album takes a downturn from then, with the piano-pop-electro hybrid ‘Secret Movies’ going in one ear and out the other and ‘A Long Way to the Start‘ burrowing the strings that gave its first few bars such promise. The album ends with ‘Everytime The World is Too Loud’, which brings things to a peaceful close. Although it’s a hit and miss effort, there’s enough on ‘Continental’ to appeal to hardcore electropop devotees.

Track Listing:-

1 Continental
2 Lonely Ride
3 On This Brightful Day
4 The Wife, The Battlefield
5 Follow Me, Boy
6 Eastern
7 Always
8 Anytime Is Now
9 Them
10 Secret Movies
11 A Long Way To The Start
12 Following...
13 Every Time The World Is Too Loud