Word: albumã
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...song is being played on a cheap vinyl record player. This attempt to avoid the crystal clarity of electro pop and set Phantogram apart from similar groups like Postal Service makes the album less accessible than it might have been. It does, however, succeed in livening up the album??s repetitive beats and melodies, which otherwise could become rather sterile and bland...
...best features to be found on “Eyelid Movies” are the bass lines and Barthel’s vocals. Carter’s guitar playing also occasionally shines, particularly on the album??s quieter songs. The album??s lyrics, while only hooking the listener occasionally, certainly do not hurt any of the songs. This neutrality is as much as the record needs, as its other aspects provide plenty of highlights. Although not remaining stellar throughout, this album provides a great overview of what Phantogram are capable of accomplishing. Based on its singles...
Despite this, however, the production is the album??s most interesting element, creating rich arrangements that almost prevent the songs from becoming overly repetitive. The title track is the most impressive production feat: instruments cut in and out with a staccato aggression and Adu’s overdubbed voice hits multiple registers, weaving a tapestry of interlocking vocal snippets that drive the song’s dynamics from the arid determination of the opening to the rising chorus of wandering lovers. Distorted guitars and synthesizers howl like frigid winds through the track, slicing Adu’s distant...
...melodic fragments that Adu shakes down with melancholic elegance. Here, her lack of obvious emoting benefits the song and her voice sounds more powerful than on most. The percussion is minimal—a tambourine shivering over the steady heartbeat of a kick drum. However, on most of the album??s tracks, particularly “Long Hard Road,” and “Bring Me Home,” the production isn’t enough to compensate for the weak songwriting and over-processed instruments, and the listener is left with an unoriginal track...
...That Easy”— which ironically may be the best song on “Soldier of Love”—reveals the album??s deepest flaw. Despite an improvement in dynamic songwriting, the overly processed instruments and production which, in context of the stronger songwriting, is overbearing, keep the song from reaching the emotional peaks for which it aspires. A smoky upright bass pattern lightly supports the Sunday-afternoon strumming of the laconic acoustic and the waves of organ that sweep through the wide-open spaces of the song like wind...