Record Review - South "You Are Here"

South's previous three albums have have followed the holy trident of european brit-pop with 2001's From Here On In sounding like The Stone Roses, 2003's With the Tides sounding like The Charlatans UK, and 2006's Adventures in the Underground, Journey to the Stars sounding like New Order. You Are Here, South's latest release, is the first album that you can't truly make any comparisons too. Combining elements of all three of their previous albums, it is the first record where you have to say they sound like nobody, but themseleves. This is never more so evident than on the album's opening track, "Wasted." A song about a couple lamenting about how they tired of getting wasted, the lyrics unfold over a gorgeous layer of sounds-- strings-check, delayed notes - check, gorgeous strumming - check, siren droning in the background - check -- its an album highlight. Wasted combines all of the elements fans have come to love about South. The rest of the album follows much of their previous career trajectory, but finds them experimenting with Oasis like perussions and is an album highlight. The album, however, not without its missteps, "She's Half Crazy" is a hot mess with South bringing a little funk to the proceedings. The song sounds like Ian Brown and Bootsy Collins had an ugly child. Balloons ends far too soon being only 30 seconds long, but those 30 seconds are pure heaven. I wish South had developed it into a full song.

Album closer Zither Song is the highlight of the album and is one of the best songs South has ever written. Over a gentle strum featuring some beautiful zither instrumentation, lead singer, Joel Cadbury laments the process of time. The track finds South operating in space with the drums and crescendo not kicking in until the 2:56 mark. The buildup is worth the wait as it features a kick-ass drumbeat and swirling guitars. At its most, You Are Here is what you expect from South, an experimental consistent affair that features great choruses and epic like instrumentation.

FINAL SCORE - 8.5



POST SCRIPT. I picked South's Adventures in the Undergound, Journey to the Stars as the best album in 2006. In making that selection I commented about 2006 not being a great year in music and for me, and picked the South album as the best almost apologetically. Listening to that album again in its entirety, I realize my mistake. That album is a murderer's row of tunes and rightfully deserves its place as the best album of 2006. I should probably re-write that list at my old blog.