The Irrepressibles (Mirror Mirror-Nude) [FLAC] {100.XY}

Now, without loosing s bit, so, lossless


Wikipedia:
The Irrepressibles is an art-pop collective founded and led by composer and musician Jamie McDermott.


Album List:

Mirror Mirror
01. My Friend Jo
02. I'll Maybe Let You
03. In Your Eyes
04. Anvil
05. Forget The Past
06. Knife Song
07. My Witness
08. Nuclear Skies
09. Splish! Splash! Sploo!
10. The Tide
11. Transition Instrumental
12. In The Shirt

Review
By listening to The Irrepressibles' 'Mirror Mirror' you are only getting half the story. Jamie McDermott's pop dectet are so rooted in theatrics and operatics, so obsessed with pushing the boundaries of popular music performance, that their music lacks a certain element on record.
Not that their debút album doesn't hold plenty of spectacle on its own. The mood switches between triumphant and withdrawn, almost as scenes in a play, as Jamie guides the band through infinite complexities of emotion and instrumentation. 'My Friend Jo' draws the curtains with pomp and splendour; Jamie's full-bodied falsetto bends from lulls to shrieks between staccato strings and expansive percussion, painting a ghost image of Jeff Buckley's billowing sermons on top of the grandeur of a Shakespearean play.
Its aggression and vigour caste a shadow on the next couplet, the meandering balladry 'I'll Maybe Let You' and 'In Your Eyes', slightly masking their naked beauty with an expectancy of more immediate delights. After several listens however they begin to blossom out and unravel their charm, before 'Anvil' picks up the pace with its Final Fantasy (Owen Pallett)-meets-amateur choir histrionics.
The structure of the album is perhaps it's biggest negative, albeit not a great one in this age of Ipod shuffles and short attention spans. Particularly as it pushes its masterpiece to the encore. 'In This Shirt' is a truly haunting work, a breathless soliloquy that carries the same stark intimacy as Antony & The Johnsons' 'Hope There's Someone' but calls out to the furthest heavens. It is utterly spellbinding, and as perfect a finale as has ever been written, but it would be much more appropriate as an introduction, a siren song to lure into The Irrepressibles vivid demi-world.
'Mirror Mirror' may only be half the story, but it offers enough wonder and genius to entice and entrance, and throughout carries a weight that allows for interpretations and allusions, and of course for reading between the lines.
Review by Jordan Dowling
Rate 9/10





Nude
1 Time Passing
2 Pale Sweet Healing
3 New World
4 Tears (prelude)
5 Two Men in Love
6 To Be
7 Arrow
8 Tears
9 The Opening
10 Ship




Review
Few bands dispel the myth that 'you get out what you put in' more than The Irrepressibles. Two years ago, Jamie McDermott's collective released one of the most ambitious débuts of recent years in Mirror Mirror; an emphatic collection of masterfully orchestrated art-pop full of pomp and yearning; and then took it to the stage with performances more closely resembling high theatre than a typical gig and yet, bar a brief dalliance with recognition through the use of Mirror Mirror's highlight 'In This Shirt' in a major ad campaign, they remain criminally underrated.
The follow-up full length Nude may put this right. Whilst still flaunting Jamie's peacock falsetto and full of pizzicato-driven panache that may put off the casual listener, Nude is much more immediately accessible and enjoyable, particularly on 'Tears', where synths and a programmed kickdrum give way to violin plucks and military percussion that masks the retreating fragility at the song's heart. A half nod to Smoky Robinson & The Miracles' 'Tears Of A Clown', it has the self-doubt and slow morph between verse and chorus of first-wave C86 bands such as The Field Mice and the glacial fragility of Talk Talk at their midpoint. It isn't the most obvious hit, but its translation to both dancefloors and discos is perhaps one that was lacking on Mirror Mirror.
However, its precedent, 'Tears Prelude', shows that an obscuration of their opulent serenity has been spared. It is a stunning work of introspective ambience as touching as any conjured by Stars Of The Lid, Eluvium and the like, with Jamie's vocals slowed almost to a stop, married to crystallised strings cradled deep in reverb, offering the cinematic epicness that M83 might have done on Before The Dawn Heals Us if they possessed the confidence and vision of their current incarnation.
Around this, Nude offers a closer sound to Mirror Mirror on 'Arrow' and the sublime 'Two Men In Love', calling to mind the unavoidable comparison to Antony & The Johnsons on their first release, yet even on here, like Antony Hegarty himself between his landmark I'm A Bird Now and most recent full length Swanlights, there is a definite sign of progress in the depth and width of the band's sound.
The problem, along with the awkward structuring of the album ('Arrow' is a perfect opener, 'Two Men In Love' a perfect closer but both find themselves in the middle third of the album) is that there is too little quantity to match the quality of Nude's highlights; with ten tracks of which two are interludes and one by name a prelude. Outside of these, 'To Be' floats by unnoticed, leaving around half an hour of music that truly captures the interest, something which could be forgiven on a début but leaves you feeling a little short changed on a sophomore effort. A shame, as at its peak, Nude is one of the year's strongest offerings but, particularly for an act with such obvious ambition, it is hindered by its brevity.
Review by Jordan Dowling


Summary:
Country: UK
Genre: Alternative
Styles: Orchestral, Chamber Pop, Ambient, Electronica


Media Report:
Source : CD
Format : FLAC
Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : ~546-959 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits