Jud Vandy - Children Lost In Fantasy Part TwoJud Vandy, a talented musician from Cornwall could easily be seen as the musical version of Marmite, I myself could happily see why someone wouldn't understand his musical exploits while at the same time I could happily nod my head towards anyone who called him a genius. His first album 'Children Lost In Fantasy Part One' wowed me into acclaim from the first moment I heard it, but follow up 'Children Lost In Fantasy Part Two' has taken many weeks of continuous listens just for me to write a review that I feel does both me and the album justice.
Opening track 'Through Walls' starts brilliantly with a dark daunting guitar melody before moving into avant indie guitar territory that we may have come to expect from Minus The Bear which creates the fast paced vocal tempo for the verse encouraging you lyrically to break free of your restraints before the slow, mysterious and haunting feel of the chorus, 'Through Walls' works the pop song structure brilliantly keeping you on your toes with clever changes in tempo's and a flux of ideas. Other stand out track 'A Heaven Spared' is built around a screeching and almost unlistenable distorted guitar tone made tolerable by guitar hooks and an electronic sound driven by programmed drumming while Jud Vandy's vocals resemble that of Kele from Bloc Party. 'Rendition' begins with some glorious lead guitar work that instantly makes it like-able in my ears and sets it apart from most tracks on the record by forcing its way into my skull and staying there, forcing me to want to listen to it, if there is one track that I would use to attempt to get people to buy this record then 'Rendition' would be that, I just can't describe my feelings towards how fantastic this track is. 'Scarecrow' almost made it onto my list of tracks that really shouldn't have made it onto the album but the song, sounding like an out of tune The Beatles on acid has some really nice touches on it, especially the vocal over-dubs towards the middle of the track making it well worth a listen.
The problem with 'Children Lost In Fantasy Part Two' ultimately is that there are too many songs on the record. It is quantity over quality to a degree and some tracks feel like they don't belong on the record and their inclusion stops the album from flowing progressively. 'Arrival' is a pointless thirty second interval that just doesn't work, 'Misery Of The Dull Opportuniy' has this distorted almost punk feel to it that while is great, especially lyrically, it just doesn't sit well with the dark, twisted electronic sound of the rest of the record, while final track 'The Saint' is a lo-fi minimal guitar and vocals track that doesn't click with the production of the rest of the album (which is fantastic by the way) and once again, doesn't sit well with the musical direction of the album, and these are three of maybe five or six examples I could have mentioned which would have brought the album to a twelve or thirteen track release which would have made reviewing this album at least, a less daunting experience.
The talent of Jud Vandy is clear to hear, who beside the odd few guest appearances by local musicians, wrote and recorded this record all by himself but sometimes I wish that rather than being hugely original, he would take the more mainstream elements of his music and mix them with some of the nicer touches on this record to create a huge product that is listenable on a larger scale rather than just from a niche audience. 'Children Lost In Fantasy Part Two' is definitely worth a listen if you are into the darker side of guitar or electronic music.
3.5 / 5
Jud Vandy Myspace
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ReplyDeleteJUD'S RESPONSE (Part 1 of 2)
ReplyDeleteHi Craig, thanks for the review. I appreciate that it's your opinion but I have to disagree with you on a number of points.
Firstly, there aren't too many songs on the album. A song like Scarecrow, dark and unsettling as it is, is integral to the albums structure: it follows perfectly from Stars Above Her (and then becomes Share, which naturally flows into Spill The Mute as it mutates into Little Ghost and so on). If I removed Scarecrow, the album would feel squashed and contrived as a consequence. Likewise, the song Arrival is not pointless. It flows seamlessly from the intricate, organized gothic pop chaos of Listerin Burn to the gothic avant garde grunge and hip-hop of One Square Mile. Arrival is a really atmospheric, psychadelic and experimental track. I wonder had it not been on the track listing, but rather buried in the album as the tail end of Listerin Burn, would you have made the same complaint about it, which brings me to my second point.
The album is meant to be viewed as a whole piece, a continuous soundscape of music, not as individual songs. A track like Misery Of
The Dull Opportunity is included to alleviate the mood which is generally very dark. Contrary to what you've stated, it fits
perfectly, both musically and rhytmically. The verse is gothic wheras the two chorus's lift the song and the listener with pop harmonies.
Bear in mind that with the opening track, Through Walls, I'd already estsblished that the album was going to be half gothic, half pop.
I think the inclusion of The Saint provides a fantastic contrast to the rest of the album, whilst adding lyrical closure. The song follows the title track (which I'm surprised you didn't mention as it's fantastic) extremley well because it shares the same feel and urgency (I'd like to add that I feel the title track is the best song I've ever written, an opinion that's echoed by many on the Tindeck site where it is my most downloaded and played).
I'd already established minimalism on track 2 (Ghost On The Backstreet) and I'd already established lo-fi guitar/vocal music on track 4 (the intricate gothic ballad, Immature Teenage Love Song). So, it shouldn't have been too much of a surprise when another lo-fi, minimalist, gothic track cropped up.
The song should be seen as an epilogue.
JUD'S RESPONSE (Part 2 of 2)
ReplyDeleteThe album flows perfectly.
It's unfortunate that it shares the title Children Lost In Fantasy (an un-avoidable mistake on my part, it was started at the same time as Part 1 and so I believed at the time that the material would lead to a two-part album) as ultimately it's a sequel in name only and may have led you to believe that it would be similar in terms of accessibility
and running time to the first part (which is my second album by the way, Picture Of The Sun is my first). Structurally it's completley
different and it IS a lot longer as a result. It's not as digestible as Part 1 but then, it's not meant to be.
It should be very apparent from the lyrics, front cover, artwork and the generally downbeat tone of the music that I wasn't actually thinking "hmm, I wonder if anyone'll like this?" when I was in the creative process. (Rather I was thinking: "These songs, compositions, pieces of art, poetry and lyrics work together because...")
However, the energy and mostly aggresive delivery ensure that, ironically, the album is a good one to party to (so long as you're not
purely into chart music or are one of those hipsters or so-called alternatives that believe in the "rules" of punk music. Like punk music was ever supposed to have rules.) I played it at two different parties and, rather than bringing the mood down, people were chatting and having a good time as though it were Public Enemy.
With repeated listens, readings and viewings, you'll probably "get" the album eventually.
I hope you enjoy it when you do.
Jud