SHRINE OF NEW GENERATION SLAVES

The controversy around this album was one of the reasons that drew me in. Not having studied their last couple of releases (but hearing snippets that confirmed they were still the same band) their single 'Celebrity Touch' came to introduce a new element to SONGS, which did not sound to glue too well with their trademark sound.

In SONGS, Riverside try to mix this retro-bluesy-stoner sound with what they know to do well: creating beautiful melodies, experimenting "reservedly". Granted, creating the same album every 2-3 years is not ideal, but when the new ingredients are not compatible with one another the cake will fail. And I assume this is what happened here, in an album with no real excellent songs from start to finish, just indications of a band that can create great music. The exceptional moments are few and hard to find in compositions that either recycle previous ideas or extend in length without specific direction.

The mellower moments are again the ones to watch out for ('The Depth of Self-Delusion', 'We Got Used to Us', 'Deprived') but even then the melodies are not consistently great and the forced introduction of distorted vocal effects spoils the ambiance. The retro-stoner (call me Spiritual Beggar) riff of the opening track gets recycled, albeit slightly twisted, in the remainder of the album and 'Celebrity Touch', possibly their weakest effort in songwriting.

Fans might enjoy it, but I did not find enough to keep me spinning this, so without exceptional songs this cannot get higher than 2.5 stars. I'd suggest waiting for the next album, this is a bit "confusing" and "awkward".