(Chemikal Underground)
Few bands are as ambitious about light alt-pop as the Delgados are. After a few listens, their simple sounding music doesn't sound so simple. After a few more, the album doesn't seem that light at all.
Every two years, the Delgados release an album that is too pop-rock to make waves but too substantial to ignore. This time it's . In 2002, that album was the more orchestral critical darling Hate. With Hate, and with too, the Delgados show remarkable talent in a genre that has become too mundane even for the radio. It's a great thing for music, but a terrible thing for the Delgados themselves, who might very well be the best band never used as a reference point.
Over thin but ornate guitar loops and deceptively optimistic melodies Alun Woodword and Emma Polluck sing songs about saying the wrong thing and being in the wrong place. It's brilliantly written stuff. Each song leave's enough nihilism and enough wanting between notes that what at first seems very happy becomes very sad.
The rhythmic, sparse chords of \I Fought the Angels"" are haunting, as are the swirling melodies of ""Keep on Breathing."" But the album is just as strong when it restricts itself to standard chords in a standard meter. The Delgado's have a brilliant understanding of how far a pop song can go.
But, while this understanding may get them critical acclaim, and while is among the top tier of albums this year, it's not a genre defining album or in this year's hot sound. Nonetheless, is one the smartest albums to be this simple in a long time.
