Catherine Wheel - Ferment

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Free Music Notes for Ferment

Free Music Review: they were never shoegazers proper...
Hit: 5 Stars

anyway, this is a truly wonderful album, with nary a single track being forgettable...CW has since faltered album after album, trying to be more "rock" and/or "pop" really has never suited them, and all of their albums after 'chrome' are not very good, in spite of what hardcore fans may attest...

'ferment' features a few standout tracks and a wealth of lovely "supporting cast members"...the title track and 'black metallic' are both stunning, as if the band had tapped into the emotional heart of what the real shoegazers were missing...regardless of the lyrics, dickinson's vox and the shimmering, hissing, soaring guitar torrents make for beautiful stuff...'indigo is blue' has a perfectly timed pause before its guitar solo (don't let the phrase "guitar solo" scare you off), and also makes gorgeous use of dickinson's uniquely "hollow" vocal style...the words to "salt" are mostly unintelligible (perhaps CW were gazing shoeward on occasion), yet the song gallops along gracefully, with peals of feedback buried behind the wall of guitars in its fadeout...like slowdive's 'machine gun', the song manages to be moving without any sort of decipherable lyrical hook...

anyone interested in the kind of lush rock music that doesn't seem to get made anymore as frequently as it did during the early 90's (nowadays we get tweeness, soulless post-rock, over-earnest emo schmaltz, and so forth) should absolutely seek out 'ferment'...

the follow-up, 'chrome', is structured in a very similar way ('texture' is to 'kill rhythm' as 'black metallic' is to 'pain') and is also worthwhile...

the shivers that raced up my spine years ago during 'black metallic's quiet bridge are easily brought back on every listen...this record should be cherished...

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