313

For this occasion, Phideaux decided to put an album together in ONE single day (on March 13. 2004, hence the title). Did he want to appear in the Guinness book of records? I have to say that this approach doesn't really reach the level of its glorious predecessors.

After some sort of a Hammill opening song, the mood is getting heavier and more "robotic". "Have You Hugged Your Robot" starts with the riff of "In the Hall Of The Mountain King" from ELO and features distorted and electronic vocals to meet the robot's standards. Press next.

Most songs are on the short edge and don't provide lots of emotion. It is just a collection of average numbers which are flowing nicely into one another as if this was a concept album, but that's it. Here and there, some better songs do appear ("Never Gonna Be") but the global folkish feeling combined with electroinc ones are not the ones I was expecting from a Phideaux album at this time of his career.

This album is a major disappointment as far as I'm concerned. These "computerized" vocals sound pretty bad and the music is not much better I'm afraid ("Pyramid"). A boring feeling emanates from this work.

My favourite song is by far the upbeat and catchy "Sick Of Me". Some light in this ocean of darkness. But the experimental "Cats 2 Space" brings us back into the most miserable mood.

It is strange how Phideaux constructed some of his albums. Starting the composition of songs and then leave them unfinished, then coming back to them a year or two later to finally release an album. The same technique was used for the excellent "Chupacabras". But this "313" is dramatically lacking the grandeur and beauty of this beautiful album.

I guess that you can tell about the content just watching at the cover. My advice is just to avoid this album and concentrate on his two prior albums ("Ghost Story" and "Chupacabras").

Two stars.

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