Review: Zoot Woman – Things Are What They Used To Be
Zoot Woman - Things Are What They Used To Be (2009) [ZWR] // Grade: C+
To understand how ex-electroclash wonders Zoot Woman have evolved in the six years since their last release, you needn’t look much further than to what member Stuart Price (a.k.a. Jacques Lu Cont, Thin White Duke, Les Rhythmes Digitales) has been up to in the downtime. Remixes for the likes of Goldfrapp, Royksopp and Depeche Mode? Check. Production credits for Madonna, New Order and Seal? Check. Two Grammy wins and as many honorable mentions? Yup. Check.
So it shouldn’t be surprising that Things Are What They Used To Be is Zoot Woman’s slickest and most cleanly constructed album to date, at least where sheer accessibility is concerned. Things is wall-to-wall house hooks filtered through an electro-rock lens: Erlend Oye’s Unrest meets all things Primal Scream. And though the band still nods at the 80s synth-pop references that spawned them (most notably on the simplistic “Memory”), they’ve shunned obvious throwback in favor of small homages. “Witness”, for instance, picks up Black Celebration-era Depeche Mode only momentarily before skipping off into the French house-meets-pop territory of “We Won’t Break” or “Lust Forever”. It’s these small-ish tweaks to Zoot Woman’s signature sound (as well as the flawless production) that make Things relatively satisfying, albeit in a guilty pleasure sort of way.
But guilty pleasure or not, the slick transitions eventually turn more nauseating than impressive. Price may be an insanely gifted producer, but Zoot Woman has always been too rock-influenced to handle so much glitter and sheen without sounding destined for a car commercial. And maybe that’s been the point all along, in which case: take the album a track at a time. It’s just too overwhelmingly worked over to handle all at once.
September 1st, 2009 at 8:57 am
I can’t believe you gave YACHT an A, but this a C+. I thought this was one of the better albums of this year, right up there with “Begone Dull Care”. I really don’t see the Car Commercial knock, either… that’s actually something I hear when I listen to YACHT’s new album (sorry to keep bringing it up) opposed to this. It’s everything you could ask for from Synthpop, presently informed, yet hopelessly retro.
September 1st, 2009 at 10:46 am
I totally disagree with you. This just felt so unbelievably polished to me–by the time I got to the mid-way point of the album (right about “Witness”, which I think isn’t to say that’s a bad song, ’cause it’s really great) I was so sick of hearing such PERFECT production. Not that production needs to be shitty to grab my interest, it’s just all polished in the same way and my ears got tired of it.
It’s a C+ when you take it as a whole album. Track by track, I think it’s much better–it’s just so much to handle in one sitting.
And I like the new YACHT, man, sorry! :)
September 1st, 2009 at 10:51 am
You know what, I’ll actually concede you on the grade: when you frame it against the YACHT record, it deserves better. That said, it’s still much better as a series of singles to be listened to separately than it is as an actual album.
September 1st, 2009 at 11:24 am
I understand that an album should sound like an album, and not a collection of singles. But there’s something pretty rare and profound when a band can pull off an entire album’s worth of singles, especially if it’s a pop band. Rock band? No way.
It doesn’t really bother me hearing single after single after single if they’re all good. I’d hope that would be the goal in recording an album like this.