Penny Sparkle - A Review

I've mentioned Blonde Redhead a couple of times now, so I feel it's only fair to give them their own blog entry.

Who are Blonde Redhead?

I discovered them over a year ago, and knew very little about them for the first few months of me listening to them. Even now, I can't say that I know too much about them, so I won't really talk about them as a band: there's no way I could do them justice anyway.

Though what I do find kind of cool is that the band is made up of Japanese girl, and two Italian twin brothers, who grew up here in Montreal, and who all met while living in New York. I feel a weird connection to the band's history. Both my parents are Italian, I've lived my whole life in Montreal, and Japan makes up a good part of my personal interests. Furthermore, when I was young, we used to go to New York City almost every summer. I like making connections like this, it makes me feel closer to the object at hand. Maybe that's why I feel like their music is so representative of me: They are made up of the same elements as myself.

Penny Sparkle

Penny Sparkle is their latest album, which came out a couple of months ago. The first time I heard the album, I thought it was good, but not their best album, perhaps because of how highly I hold 23, which is pretty much one of the best albums ever. However, the more I listen to it, the more I love every bit of it.

The album as a whole is very wispy-sounding. It's really good night-time-going-home music actually. It isn't aggressive at all - it's mellow and really easy to get into.

The story of this album is that of heartbreak and travel. I guess that's another connection I have to this album. My life is forever changing, and as I try to mentally and emotionally prepare myself for the big move, I hear lyrics like "I leave next weekend, I'm not ready to go" and wonder, will that be me in a few weeks?

What I find interesting is that, like their other albums, their lyrics are often very hard to make out and you spend a long time mis-hearing the songs. Maybe that's because none of them have English as a first language. But I don't think this is a negative aspect at all: if anything, it makes them much more mysterious. On top of that, finding the lyrics to this album is nearly impossible too. But that's part of the fun, at least in my opinion.

My favourite song is, without a doubt, "Love or Prison." First of all, the title itself is phenomenal. Then there's this weird opening-door sound effect that pops up on numerous occasions during the song, that is just perfect (which is why I refuse to listen Kastellet Mix version included at the end of the album… they took away the door sound!!). I guess, lyrically, it's nothing too exciting, but I think the sound of the song speaks for itself. Here, listen to it and tell me what you think: