Live In Italy

Uncut - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Cranes continue their single-minded, 13-year-long quest for those resolutely uncommercial, abstractly beautiful and inexplicably affecting chords, patterns and sighs they do so splendidly..."

Combining two minor releases -- a live album and a remix EP -- Live in Italy & Submarine is a value-for-money purchase for fans that more casual listeners can bypass without terribly much regret. Cranes' ability to re-create their studio sound live is quite impressive for a band whose sonic attributes (besides Alison Shaw's startlingly wispy babytalk vocals) sound on record like they're the results of much Cocteau Twins-style effects and processing, but that unfortunately means that when one gets right down to it, Live in Italy is basically a live album that's more or less indistinguishable from the studio records. Submarine is a nine-track remix EP with four mixes each of the two singles from Cranes' comeback album Future Songs, "Submarine" and "Don't Wake Me Up," along with one mellow down-tempo version of "Driving in the Sun" from the same album. The mixes vary only slightly in mood and arrangement, and the collection as a whole is strictly for completists. ~ Stewart Mason|