The herky-jerky tone that Neon Blonde starts off “Chanderliers in the Savannah” is raucous and loud, but has some form of harmonics hiding behind all the brash and bold arrangements. “Cherries In Slow Motion” mixes perfectly parts of seventies rock (perfectly exemplified with the fabulous vocals and piano present on the track) with the traditional noise of bandfs like The Locust and Lightning Bolt. Interestingly enough, Neon Blonde really break out from the syncopated sounds of their similarly-sounding siblings; the extended length of the track treally allows for nuanced music to be fleshed out. “Crystal Beaches Never Turned Me On” is much less noisy tan the rest of the songs on “Chandeliers In The Savannah”; the falsetto vocals of Johnny on the track really give the track a feeling that this was left on the cutting room floor from the final cut of Rocky Horror than being only a few months old.
“New Detroit” is perhaps the most retro track that Neon Blonde places on the disc; where the song may be called “New Detroit”, the blues arrangements that open up are pulled straight from the swamp. The shouting match that Johnny has with eirself on the track really gives the track a much-needed fullness that really does not have a comparable moment anywhere else on the disc. The most impressive track on “Chandeliers in the Savannah” has to be the very atmospheric-driven “Wings Made out of Noise”. Adding something to the mix (in a sequenced drum-beat, the slight shift in the band’s sound that really comes to bear during the aforementioned “Wings” and “The Future is a Mesh Stallion”, Neon Blonde really show to their audience that nothing will force them to revisit ground previously trodden. While there are tracks here that build off previous songs, there is not the same style of episodic ennui that really tends to sink the majority of current albums.
“Chandeliers in the Savannah” may be some of the least pop-oriented music currently out on the market, but at one basic level there is a harmony that will drive any proper fan of music completely bonkers. Couple that with a lush production and solid track after solid track, and Neon Blonde is really a band that is greater than the acts that preceded them (yes, I do mean Blood Brothers). “Love Hounds” will be invading radio stations near you soon enough, so make it a point to pick up this post-apocalyptic dance-rock-punk-jazz-fusion act while you still have a stance.
Top Tracks: Love Hounds, Crystal Beaches Never Turned Me On
Rating: 7.6/10
Neon Blonde – Chanderliers in the Savannah / 2005 Dim Mak / http://www.neonblonde.com / http://www.dimmak.com / Reviewed 03 October 2005