(This Is) What We Call Progress

(This Is) What We Call Progress Artist: Saloon
Label: Darla Records
Category: Music


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


UPC: 708527012420
EAN: 0708527012420
ASIN: B000063KPQ


Release Date: 2002-04-09

(This Is) What We Call Progress


Related Categories:

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

Tracks:

  1. Plastic Surgery
  2. Bicycle Thieves
  3. Le Weekend
  4. Make It Soft
  5. Static
  6. Girls Are The New Boys
  7. 2500 Walden Ave.
  8. Across The Great Divide
  9. My Everyday Silver Is Plastic
  10. Victor Safronov

Similar Items:

  1. If We Meet in the Future

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars "So This Is The New World...".......2003-10-16

Think of all the best British bands from the 1980s and you have the basis for Saloon. Think New Order, The Cocteau Twins, The Smiths. Revel in the hint of a Wedding Present thrash-out in 'Le Weekend'. Wallow in the My Bloody Valentine bit in 'Static'. And then...
And then ask me what's so special about this , if I can so easily and effectively refer it to the past.
Well, the first thing to say, I suppose, is that Saloon take the past and their reference points and then somehow - and the 'somehow' is the art and the act of genius - transform this into a rush of beauty and sensuous breathlesness that moves timelessly and feels effortless. Of today. But for all time. Truly.
The initial noodlings of the opener, 'Plastic Surgery', lead into urgent drumming, niggling bass and the soaring vocals of Amanda Gomez intoning words like "inspiration" and phrases like "separate our universe". Then the keyboard swirling and riffs take the song onto another level.
'Bicycle Thief' is next. "Shelter in...", and tickling percussion. "These are splinters...". As are all the lyrics here. Each listen will reveal new words, new lines but I just lose myself in the moment, unwilling or unable to make the connection, put the pieces together. Immersed.To the extent that I don't want it all to fall into place. And become clear. All to be explained. "These are splinters...". Which are of the moment. And matter.
Every track here is special and it's hard to isolate standouts.
'2500 Walden Avenue' swoons through its five and a half minutes of stopped time and 'My Everyday Silver Is Plastic' haunts with its "I'm never gonna be your cowboy" refains and melodica harmonies.
But the standout track - the track - is 'Girls Are The New Boys'. The number one track in John Peel's Festive 50 for 2002, it is a work of heightened beauty. And breathtaking in its initial fragility moving towards that strength and its ultimate resolve. And as catchy a song as you could want. So much so that I invariably find myself humming along to the sequencer bits - seriously - and then those guitars pile in at the end whereupon nothing else matters. And I'm thinking. And I'm feeling. And aren't I now quoting lyrics by The Field Mice...which sort of brings us full circle.
"So this is the new world/Just like the other one...".
If that was a question I touched on above, then I'll continue. The easy part is saying where this band, this music is coming from. What is not so easy, certainly to convey, is where this music has arrived at. That's the difficult part, the difficult part to answer. But the bit I love. Because I get to listen to the question over and over again. And know that it feels right. How much more conclusive does music need to be...

5 out of 5 stars Probably the find of the summer.......2002-10-21

Not sure why I bought this CD - recommendation from the Sunday Times I think. But am I ever glad that I did as this is easily one of the best buys of the year. The combination of delicate and sultry melodies with lavish, almost discordant, overlays of electronics sucks you in and it has rapidly become the CD that never leaves the player. Particular favorites would be My Every Day Silver Is Plastic which combines the 2 aspects particularly well, Le Weekend, and Static.

Music Album:

  1. Sign O the Times
  2. This is Acid Jazz: Trip Hop & Jazz, V. 2: Beats from the Underground ~ Deadbeats , Tosca , Exodus Quartet , Marschmellow , Beanfield , DJ Friction , Soul Patrol , Shantel , and Paradeis
  3. Live ~ Curved Air
  4. Night at the Theater
  5. The Gestures ~ The Gestures
  6. Apathy Is the New Black ~ Heads vs. Breakers
  7. Boom Boom ~ The Animals
  8. No Regrets ~ Pure Grain
  9. Collection, Vol. 2 ~ Spandau Ballet
  10. Silverbird ~ Leo Sayer

Music Album

Music Album

Music CD

Endless Is Love ~ Jon Lucien

Jazz in Paris: Jazz & Cinéma, Vol. 1 ~ Barney Wilen

On Second Thought ~ Greg Gisbert

It's Reigning Kats & Dogs & Bogen ~ Eyran Katsenelenbogen

A Tribute to Billy May ~ Various Artists

Origins/Kinohi ~ 'Ale'A

Sri Saujana Ghazal ~ Sri Saujana Ghazal

Andalusian Music from Algiers ~ Nassima

Der Wind Und Das Meer ~ Hans Albers

The Divine Drummer ~ Guy Warren