Word: synth
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...epitomizes the problems that plague Clapton's newest release. "Pretending" leads off with a clever little piano introduction which segues into a brief Clapton guitar riff. But, as in much of Clapton's '80s releases, his guitar is kept firmly in the background, behind synthesized horns and a synth organ, dominated by a programmed drum kit which keeps an unnecessarily imposing beat...
...REST of the album presents a panoramic history of recent American pop, from the '60s girl group sound to modern synth pop, from Midwestern rock to New York rap. The highlights are plentiful. Alison Moyet's "The Coventry Carol" and Sting's "Gabriel's Message" are the two purely spiritual songs, and they are beautifully austere. Sting sings a capella except for a few drum beats, while Moyet blends her ancient sounding carol with simple synthesizer accompaniment producing a haunting blend of present and past...
Nevertheless, the Hoodoo Gurus still blow most other pop groups out of the water. As diminished as their anarchic tendencies may be on Blow Your Cool, their playing is still more intense than that of any synth band covering similar pop territory. It just seems that the Hoodoo Gurus aren't having as much fun as they used...
...rest of The Ideal Copy ranges from incomprehensible to ridiculous, switching from jawdropping pretension to numbing boredom and incomprehensibility. "Cheeking Tongues" and "Ambitious" are both uninteresting melodic synth-pop, with a self-referential allusion to "12XU" that makes the reunion embarassment of the album all too glaring. This is music for icy hip drones, to be filed next to your new Cabaret Voltaire records for those autonomously cool experiences of a lifetime...
...Stranglers do manage to generate some interest in those songs augmented by a horn section, creating sound textures not usually heard in synth-pop. The best of these tunes is "Mayan Skies," an impressionistic little piece that is the album's least pretentious effort...