The Picture Show

The Picture Show Artist: Buffseeds
Label: Rough Trade Us
Category: Music


Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 021823006925
EAN: 0021823006925
ASIN: B0007M224S


Release Date: 2005-01-25

The Picture Show


Related Categories:

General General
Categories | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
General General
Categories | Rock | Styles | Music
Pop Rock Pop Rock
Categories | Pop | Styles | Music

Tracks:

  1. Sparkle Me
  2. Casino
  3. Sunlight
  4. Guide to Happiness
  5. Day She Fell to Earth
  6. Who Stole the Weekend
  7. Barricade
  8. Coward
  9. Riot
  10. Buy Her Flowers
  11. Ocean Blue
  12. Hideaway

Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars Pretty picture.......2005-02-16

The Buffseeds, a U.K. indie-rock band, are only just entering the music scene. But their full-length debut "Picture Show" is a very pretty album. Kieran Scragg's falsetto can be a bit distracting, but what comes after is a light, pensive little mix of rock and ballads.

A rhythm comes into the album from the very start: It opens with the sparkling, airy pop of "Sparkle Me." It's laid-back, but soars every now and then, on the back of a beautiful keyboard melody. On the other hand, "Casino" is gloom-rock, still soaring and exquisitely multilayered, given a few extra shoves with the echoing bass.

After that, the Buffseeds alternate between midtempo rock songs and ethereal pop ditties, both written to bittersweet lyrics about love, loss and loneliness. The latter sound a bit like Turin Brakes mixed with a bit of Mandalay. At times it sounds like Scragg is torn between wanting to be Thom Yorke and Billy Corgan -- the music is more like Radiohead, but when the music swells he lets rip like Corgan when he's really into the music.

That vague confusion is the only thing that keeps the Buffseeds' debut from being really outstanding. It needs a bit more musical complexity and passion -- THEN it will be really good. As it is, the midtempo rockers don't quite measure up to the airy, swirling Hammond ballads. They're pretty good and bittersweetly beautiful, but they're not quite there yet.

Kieran Scragg sounds completely androgynous here -- he may be the first singer I have heard with gender-bending vocals. Sometimes he sounds like a fey man, sometimes like a woman. It suits the shoegazer pop better than it does the rock songs, where he sounds like the music is going too fast for him to follow.

Music Album:

  1. ...pain, pleasure, fear and opera ~ Johnny Sketch & The Dirty Notes
  2. Grooves in Orbit ~ NRBQ
  3. Picchio dal Pozzo ~ Picchio dal Pozzo
  4. The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! ~ The Dictators
  5. Hang in There Charlie ~ Sleep Station
  6. The Best of Fury Psychobilly, Vol. 2 ~ Various Artists
  7. 24 Hour Service ~ Ian Gomm
  8. 3 ~ The Dishes
  9. Midnight, California ~ Dave Gleason's Wasted Days
  10. Shaving Lucky ~ Naked Blue

Music Album

Music Album

Music CD

Live at Port Townsend ~ Red Mitchell & George Cables

Beyond the Seven Hills ~ Mehmet Ergin

Sex & Soul ~ Roy-C

Music CD 71

Parisian Concert ~ Dexter Gordon

Air Mail Music: Thailand ~ Mahori Kruang Sai Thai Ensemble

Festival Mondial des Cultures Drummondville: Top Selection ~ Various Artists

System of Alive ~ W-Inds

L'Rosh Pina

Forro Brega Brasil ~ Various Artists