Morcheeba - Big Calm
This is the second album from Morcheeba and definitely their best, it is an almost perfect aural fantasy, fusing jazz, pop, rock, dance, and classical music into one seamless collection. Although the first album was up beat trip hop it was still oppressive, but here we find them in a positively vibrant mood with jumpy drum beats, soothing string arrangements and Skye’s beautiful voice floating on top. The string arrangements have been turned up and brought to the fore, whereas on Who Can You trust they were used for creating a dark mood.
Opener “The sea” is bouncy and upbeat, it has a great soothing string section, a jazz guitar that really adds to the feel of the song and creates an atmosphere that almost brings the seaside into your stereo, such is the mood conveyed here. The Godfrey brothers have really out done themselves here in terms of the music they have created for Skye Edwards to sing over. “Shoulder holster” has the most like WCYT feel to it, with its rumbling bass that blends into one, prominent big beat-ish drums and various sound effects that come together to create a collage of sound. The amazing thing about this album is that it is seamless, things don’t seem to clash here and everything blends into each other really well. “Part of the process” is yet another beautiful song that brings out the best in Skye’s voice, conveying a delicate emotion culminating in a great sing-a-long chorus, it has an almost country and western feel to it with its twangy guitar. “Blindfold” is the best song they’ve ever written and ever will. It builds up slowly, the bass, the drums, and the gentle acoustic guitar that again blend together. They even find room for a brass section here adding to the sense of emotion in the track, and finally the strings hit you, driving the chorus along with such a force it really makes the song. It has so many components it is a work of genius. Other great son
gs on a record full of them include “Over and over”, an almost wholly acoustic song where yet again Skye’s voice works really well, and of course “Fear and love” which a bit like “Blindfold” builds and builds into something spectacular.
A great second album.