Love Drips and Gathers

The rare supergroup that uses the talents of all their members to their fullest, Piroshka changes gears effortlessly on their second album, Love Drips and Gathers. Instead of delivering more of the bitingly political post-punk outbursts that made Brickbat a firecracker of a debut album (as well as a continuation of Lush and Elasticas latter days), this time the band opts for more-personal songwriting and a softer sound that draws on dream pop, shoegaze, post-rock, and art-pop. Though Mooses K.J. McKillop and Modern Englishs Mick Conroy take over creative control from Miki Berenyi and Justin Welch, Love Drips and Gathers is as much on theme as Brickbat was. As its Dylan Thomas-inspired title suggests, the album traces the ebb and flow of emotions, relationships, and memories of loved ones past and present. At times, Piroshka looks back with a soft-focus lens: Hastings, an expansive and touching tribute to McKillops late mother, is lush in a way not usually associated with Berenyi, with a flugelhorn solo that sets it aloft. At other times, the bands hindsight is crystal clear: Scratching at the Lid explores McKillops relationship with his father, setting some of the albums most barbed lyrics (What will they say as they put you in the ground?) to some of the most irresistibly sugary dream pop that any of Piroshkas members have concocted -- which is saying something. However, even when the band revisits the sounds many of their fans love most, they add new twists instead of retreading. Named for and dedicated to late 4AD art director Vaughn Oliver, V.O.s heavy, shimmering psych-gaze feels like a fitting but not predictable homage to the man responsible for much of the labels beautifully cryptic imagery, while Loveables hints of exotica contrast its down-to-earth look at love. As it comes to a close, Love Drips and Gathers only grows more adventurous, with a pair of Stereolab-like excursions that add a cosmic depth to the softly drifting mood on which the album began. A frequently lovely album born out of introspection and loss, Love Drips and Gathers captures the complex ways life and music change while upholding Piroshkas musical legacy. ~ Heather Phares

ラッシュのミキ・ベレーニ、ムースのKJ、エラスティカのジャスティン・ウェルチ、バッド・イングリッシュのミック・コンロイといったUKのヴェテランたちによるスーパー・バンドから2作目が届いた。〈前作がブリット・ポップなら今作はシューゲイザー〉とミキが語るように、90年代の4AD作品群を現代に蘇らせたかのような、ドリーミーで耽美的な内容だ。ところどころに覗く高貴な香りも最高で、英国バンドらしいプライドが感じ取れます。
bounce (C)赤瀧洋二