CD, Ninthwave Records, 2006
www.electroluvs.com
Hailing from Scotland, the Electroluvs are a two-piece electronic outfit with a difference. Their musical roots tend to spawn from Digi-Punk and ‘Casiopop’ right through to classic Rock’n’Roll and early New Wave. “Bubblewrapped” is the second album release from the duo.
The first thoughts on hearing the album’s opener are pretty misleading to what the rest of the album has in store. “First Love” is a pretty straightforward Electroclash track that has a rather up-beat eclectic feel to it. Unfortunately, I feel that it doesn’t actually prepare the listener for the rest of the albums content. Normally I would expect an opener to at least set a foundation for what the rest of the album has to offer. On this occasion though, it didn’t.
Thankfully, the follow up track, “Boy Don’t Bother”, rectifies what felt like an otherwise disappointing introduction and I was pleased to see that the band had released this particular track as a single. It has all the necessary traits of a classic floor-filler for any die-hard Bubblegum-pop fan: it’s catchy, simple and extremely effective. If the entire album had this must flair, then I believe the band could be onto a winner.
On from there, the rest of the album heads through some rather dramatic changes, bouncing from all types of sounds and genres and back again. I think it’s through this approach that the album becomes slightly muddled. When listening to it carefully, you can pick out the influences that shaped the sound of the album and as an overall mix it really is a case of ‘hit or miss’. I suppose one could say that it’s almost as if the act are trying to blend too much originality into their work without realising that it’s clouding the overall effectiveness of what they originally set out to do.
On a whole, I personally found “Bubblewrapped” quite tedious and without any real substance. The single does show that the artists have the potential to write a good solid track but the album has a desperate need for some consistency. From a personal point of view I would much rather entertain the idea of purchasing just the single as apposed to the full-length release.
[2/10]
— Paul Marcham