Review: Fischerspooner – Entertainment

A masterwork. Simple and to the point: a great, great album, along with the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s 2009 effort, the best of the year so far.

Fischerspooner are an odd band. As much performance artists as recording artists or musicians, one never knows what one is going to get from them. Their first album, #1 was highly experimental, shades of the minimalist 70s-era electronic music with bleeps and squawks and tuneless singing and it was really fun. The followup, Odyssey, went sharply in a different direction, embracing more traditional rock and electro-pop influences, and it totally redefined what the band was capable of on record. Both record worked on totally different levels. Then came Entertainment…

Review: Client – Command

With great economy of haste, Client rush out their followup to 2006’s Heartland, and it’s a corker. Where Heartland seemed muddled and confused as to what kind of band Client wanted to be, Command shows with sparkling clarity this is a band very much in touch with its electroclash heart.

The biggest surprise of the album is how the band cleverly drew upon the best of the three previous albums. From the Kraftwerkian minimalism of Client, to the electropop of City, to the electronically-influenced rock of Heartland, we experience a touch of each on this clever, often inspired disc.