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Robin Guthrie, "Everlasting"
Over the course of only four songs, this former Cocteau Twin has managed to rope me back into being a fan after Continental—the disappointing LP released earlier this year, also on Darla.
Darla
Continental was a very sad album to listen through start to finish. To me it was like listening to somebody whose heart ached for that special someone to return and fill the void left behind when they departed. There was an emptiness right down the middle where something else belonged. While Robin is not joined by a lead vocal for Everlasting, there's a considerable amount of space filled in, making these four songs a far better listen than the 10 on the LP.
"Bordertown" opens the EP with a lush texture, and although it's rich and serene, the melody is quite repetitive and unjoined by opposing elements before the refrain. "Fountain," the other upbeat song on the disc has the sprinklings of organ and keyboard sounds that are new for me to hear on his works, and not offensive in the least. Guthrie is a fantastic gearhead: he still manages to achieve the best sounds possible and finds the perfect balance between all of the elements. As a composer, however, he is clearly still holding on to the verse-chorus-verse school of songwriting, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if there's anything we've learned from the 1990s is that there are more challenging approaches to take when left without a singer.
While it's far more enjoyable than Continental, the problem still remains: there's no denying this sounds like a Cocteau Twins record without Simon and Liz. Although the music has more counter-melodic elements, even on the sparse closer "Everlasting" and the Victorialand-era sounding "A Sigh Across the Ocean," the sing-along-ability of a lead instrument is simply not here as well as the chugging bass lines which drove the best Cocteau Twins songs. It kind of makes me wonder if all these songs from the LP and EP weren't started in the hopes for a Cocteau Twins reunion following that ill-fated live festival appearance which never took place.
I do have hope, however, as it sounds like Robin may have accepted the fact that Continental sounded very lonely. He's joined on Everlasting by collaborators on three out of four songs, so with any luck this trend will continue and something magnificent will come out of him. I'm not giving up.
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