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Fischerspooner - Odyssey (EMI)

Danny McFadden
23/ 3/2005

2002's great white hype return - now with major label patronage - and, surprisingly enough, with very little fuss. Odd then that their sophomore set is something that they perhaps should be shouting about.

Album opener / new single 'Just Let Go', for example, bridges the gap between this and their #1 debut with a turbo-charged, Casey Spooner chanted outing reminiscent of the art/pop duo's singular hit 'Emerge'.

Warren Fischer, meanwhile, wheels out those burbling keyboards before a shock of New Order-ish guitars hint at what's to come.

See, this is their 'rock' album after the success of Scissor Sisters - an act that came through the Brooklyn-based electroclash scene that a pouting, theatrical Fischerspooner figureheaded.

Yet, aside from the prog disco of 'Never Win' (as much a cover of 'Another Brick In The Wall' as Shears & co's breakthrough was 'Comfortably Numb'), the similarities end there. This pair's influences aren't quite so obviously 'feelgood' (who's up for a cover of the obscure 'O' by Japanese noise-smiths, Boredoms?). But, at times, they are just as melodic.

Like on the piano-led 'All We Are' where climbing strings are chased around by fluttering computer tones, and on 'Ritz 107' where the multi-layered vocal evokes a groundbreaking 10cc.

'Everything To Gain', meanwhile, is a Gothic horror with trapdoor-like beats and Moody Blues-like mellotron, but we wouldn't go as far as saying it's actually 'rock'. 'Stadium synthcore' - if there's indeed a section in HMV - might be more apt.

Released on April 11.

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