CHINESE SONGS - PART ONE

After being captured by "The Sixth Sense" - LITTLE TRAGEDIES' 2006 release, I became eager to get their following product and only calm down after putting my hands on this "Chinese Songs - Part I" and. I was a bit disappointed: so much pursuit to end this way. Well, the songs are less inspired and weaker that I expected, as a general rule, but the general production is still fair and the band shows talent and competence, thence not an overall loss.

First, the Chinese tunes I heard were quite different from what I thought they should be but since these guys live closer to the Great Walls than myself, perhaps, I was wrong or had an erroneous conception. or they maybe treated the whole theme with a bit of irony. Anyway, this album hasn't the vivacity and flair observed in their previous effort, it displays basically a series of mellow songs, with some boring and drowsy passages, and highlights provided by fine keyboards accompaniment and the exquisite and tuned vocals.

Tracks are segued as in a lengthy suite resembling a conceptual opus, very personal, indeed, with the starting-point being 'I'm sitting in front of a full cup not drinking...', a short track that brings good promises not totally achieved; the song sounds like a continuation of their former album, the mentioned "The Sixth Sense". 'Absorbed in my thoughts', the next track shows a good balance and colorful parts. 'Sitting carefree in the shadow of the pavilion' adds few along its more than 7' while 'At the window' is interesting and even amusing (maybe for being short).

The two longest tracks that start the second segment of these "Chinese Songs - Part I" looks sometimes like a repetition of what has been presented along the album, this time supplied with sound effects, pieces of experimentation and new classical and different instrumentation. The last track, 'Do you remember how we said goodbye?', starts poignant and goes into a crescendo, the best song section, only to fade ghostly and sorrowful.

I rate this album as an average work, able to amuse band's fans but to be avoided if one is being introduced to LITTLE TRAGEDIES. Consequently, a neat 2.5-star rate but since there's no half stars I'll raise the rating to 3 taking in consideration some nice moments and band's abilities and hard work.