Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 12/12/05
Label: Minty Fresh

If the 2005 model of indie music on this side of the Atlantic has come to be characterised by skinny young waifs with a penchant for narrow trousers, striped shirts and an over-reliance on Gang Of Four's "Entertainment!" album, our colonial cousins have displayed an almost unerring ability to produce boy-girl duos that still remain in thrall to the legacy of The Velvet Underground. Be it lifting harmonies, gorgeous tunes and a willingness to embrace feedback, distortion and discord as friends, the blueprint laid down by Lou Reed manifests itself with a welcome regularity.

So it is with husband and wife act Kevin and Anita Richardson aka Viva Voce. Infinitely less infuriating - though no less enthusiastic for music's more esoteric experiments - than The Fiery Furnaces and more consistently satisfying than Joy Zipper by way of strong melodies, Viva Voce's third album finds the Portland, Oregon residents building on the foundations laid down by their sophomore effort, "Lovers, Lead The Way!" Recorded in their living room, the album reveals little about their domestic state of affairs but nonetheless packs a wallop redolent of homebrew but with none of the unpleasant side effects.

Opening with the sound of a crunching fuzz guitar and dramatically propulsive drums, "Alive With Pleasure" settles into a soothingly wonderful groove that makes the most of Anita's almost childlike, cooing vocals before exploding back into a catharsis of scuzz and it's a pattern that develops more roundly on the dream pop of "Business Casual" as a lolloping bass guitar runs headlong into Anita's skittering guitar to bolster Kevin's languid vocal.

"High Highs" successfully creates a cosy glow thanks largely to a lilting bossanova groove, gently dancing keyboards and a juxtaposition of voices that seamlessly melt into each other and if there's any lingering confusion as to where Viva Voce are coming from then all is cleared up on the splendidly titled "Mixtape = Love". Moreover, "The Heat Can Melt Your Brain" benefits from a greater degree of ambition than previously displayed on their earlier releases. "The Centre Of The Universe" doffs its cap to The Flaming Lips' more cerebral work-outs and goes some way to suggesting where Viva Voce may be heading next and it's a suspicion that seems to be confirmed with the mantra-like closer, "They Never Really Wake Up".

This is an album that, whilst never threatening to liquefy your mind, succeeds in creating a warm, fuzzy glow in the middle of your head. Which is as it should be.

    by James Marshall