release date: Jun. 1992
format: cd (Normal 134CD)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,42]
producer: *Mark Tibenham
label: Normal Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Red Valentino" - 2. "The Fruit Room" - 5. "Blind Opera" - 7. "The Woodcutter" - 11. "Jacob Fleet"
5th studio album by And Also the Trees is the band's first after leaving Reflex Records and thus its first to be released with German label Normal Records. The credit list doesn't mention a producer, but only reveals that it was recorded by Mark Tibenham, who produced the predecessor.
The album marks a new beginning in more than one sense, since the band has now left Reflex, and the music has undergone a stylistic change towards a more baroque pop style, although, it clearly still builds on gothic post-punk.
Back in '92 I didn't think much of the new music by AATT, or: their music was only vivid thanks to the albums released from 1984 to 1989, and I found it lacking good songs thinking of it as too theatrical. The word 'dull' came to my mind, but listening to it today, I cannot understand my rejection 'cause they were actually doing quite well, and the album is far from my then verdict. Perhaps, looking for new styles and tendencies at the time made me bury what sounded too heavily linked to post-punk. Admittedly, I don't find it truly great, but it has much more to offer than a first listen could suggest. And frankly, it does sound more in sync with present time than the contemporary grunge rock or techno as one easily associates with the early 1990s music scene.
