Quote:
Originally Posted by Jan
Don't ever call Vanilla Monkey "forgettable" again. 
For me the RiverRuns were thousand times more exciting than the last album, because I feel that it was exactly what they wanted to put out at that time. I you haven't already, listen to PFE while watching the photos...
I'm sad that there wasn't as much critical response to the EPs as they deserved.
A reason for that might be the general preconception that those EPs consisted of "unfinished" or "unpolished" tunes... and were merely "goodies". It makes me sad every time I read a sentence like that here.
Many people seem to expect a second dubno or STITI or whatever, but what's the point? If I want dubno I listen to dubno. They have to move forward... and the RiverRun project was just that. The album... not so much. Something seemed to hold them back (except for the last third + Loads of Birds, which could easily have been another RiverRun).
In answer to the original question, I think they should release a longer RiverRun in form of an album. |
Oh, don't get me wrong- the RiverRuns have been the soundtracks to a lot of great moments in my life recently (particularly the time I was taking a drive home one night and listened to all three in a row while the snow-covered scenery around me glistened... lovely), but they just seemed to focus on short, sometimes unfulfilled ponderings to set them off as individual releases. While I find some parts of Vanilla Monkey, most of which come in near the end, interesting, it feels a bit sparse at points with nothing but bongoes and Karl's foreboding vocals about suffocating and getting burned to keep you focused on what you're hearing. It's wonderfully experimental- Vanilla Monkey is certainly indicative of Underworld- but the point is that it just doesn't pass as an intimate moment with the band, like you'd expect a special release like the RiverRun project to be full of. Meanwhile, the chances of creating a special live memory to make you fond of the original, as happened to me with Rowla, are lower, as only the tracks that already stand out seem to represent the RiverRuns in performances. A new album would have more material and really just make a more coherent release from the group.