release date: Sep. 11, 2012
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,68]
producer: Richard Gottehrer & Sune Rose Wagner
label: Vice Records - nationality: Denmark
Track highlights: 1. "Young and Cold" - 2. "Observations" - 5. "Sinking with the Sun" - 6. "She Owns the Streets" - 7. "Downtown" - 8. "You Hit Me (I'm Down)" - 9. "Till the End"
6th studio album by Danish duo The Raveonettes follows 1½ years after Raven in the Grave (Apr. 2011). This time, instead being exclusively produced by Sune Wagner and / or the duo, Wagner has made contact with the producer of the band's first albums - his old idol, Richard Gottehrer, who was a member of US-band The Strangeloves and who later produced albums for acts like Dr. Feelgood, Blondie (first two albums), and The Go-Go's (first two albums), and his song "I Want Candy" (co-written with Bern Berns, Rob Feldman and Jerry Goldstein) has later been covered by many artists since its debut in 1965. Gottehrer is also well-known for having established Sire Records with Seymour Stein in '66 - a label that was known specialising in US releases with British underground artists. As producer, Gottehrer represent a particular immediate garage-rock styled sound, which I guess someone like Phil Spector may have elaborated on for his own distinct multi-layered sound but the Gottehrer-sound is a more direct, less post-produced sound that has some live-quality to it, although, it also goes for being less spacious without the loss of dynamics. In the case of Sune Wagner, the point is, he has that fondness for an original 50s/60s sound that still resonate the artist's product and which links with both garage rock and surf rock, and this is also how Gottehrer was chosen to procude the first two album for The Raveonettes.
The Observator is a short acquaintance of 31 minutes total running time but as an album release it appears much more of a whole than the predecessor, and then it comes out without a cleaner sound than most of the band's other releases. Some may think of it as sounding half-finished but I sense a stronger will to focus on simplicity in a way of binding the songs together - and that appears as a strength. The dream pop element is absent from this one, where you will be reminded of a sound from previous decades in combination of noise pop. With less instruments and simpler arrangements, I sense the common traits for the entire album instead of something pointing here and there. Perhaps, you won't find the best songs by The Raveonettes on this one but instead it works on a different level than the less successful 2011-album as that of a coherent release.
Recommended.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5, Rolling Stone 3 / 5 stars ]
