Last year around this time, I reviewed Saloon's debut album, This Is What We Call Progress.In it, I expressed the hope that with time, the Reading, UK quintetwould more fully develop and enrich their fledgling sound. If We Meet In the Future,their new album, unfortunately does not show evidence of the outcomefor which I'd hoped. Still taking strong cues from Stereolab andBroadcast, Saloon sadly never seems to quite live up to their fullpotential. This is not to say that any of their songs are unlistenable,but simply that their humble approach to recording is just *too*humble. If We Meet In the Future has a few lovely tracks: "QueQuieres?" is soothingly melancholic and "Dreams Mean Nothing" featuresa hypnotic film-noir croon. The originality of these two tracks standin marked contrast to more meandering, uninteresting songs like"Absence" and "The Good Life." Lead singer Amanda Gomez' voice is sweetand easy on the ears, but often lacks backbone. That said, and despitemy complaints with this album, I still feel that Saloon has the talentto come into their own and mature into something more substantial, butthe question remains whether or not they can actually pull it off.samples:
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