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Robin Guthrie

Angel Falls EP

(Darla; US: 30 Jun 2009; UK: 29 Jun 2009)

Poor Robin Guthrie. Ever since his former bandmate Liz Fraser stood him up at the planned Cocteau Twins reunion at Coachella a few years ago, he’s been stuck making Cocteau Twins records alone. Recording under his own name and collaborating with avant-garde pianist Harold Budd and ex-Ultravox singer John Foxx, Guthrie hasn’t strayed far at all from the Cocteau Twins’ trademark of flanged, phased and dense guitarscapes. The four songs on Angel Falls offer more of the same. With an old-school beatbox hissing away, Guthrie sounds more than ever like his old band without the Cocteau’s occasional industrial effects, sharp edges and Fraser’s way with melody and melodrama. This amounts to so much elevator-music dross. Pretty, yes, but that doesn’t stop it being painfully dull.

Rating:

John Bergstrom has been writing various reviews and features for PopMatters since 2004. He has been a music fanatic at least since he and a couple friends put together The Rock Group Dictionary in third grade (although he now admits that giving Pat Benatar the title of "first good female rocker" was probably a mistake). He has done freelance writing for Trouser Pressonline, Milwaukee's Shepherd Express, and the late Milk magazine and website. He currently resides in Madison, Wisconsin with his wife and two kids, both of whom are very good dancers.


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More lush, glacial guitarscapes from the ex-Cocteau Twin. More focused this time, too.
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Ex-Cocteau Twin follows up his recent solo album with four more lush instrumentals that sound just like his old band without the words.
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