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Album reviews Music

Madrid – Original Message

MADRID play the El Mocambo Saturday (March 12) at midnight as part of CMW. See listing. Rating: NNN


Madrid are one of those frustrating bands you really want to love, but they don’t quite manage to live up to the high expectations. To be fair, those possibly unreasonable expectations aren’t completely their fault – how can you blame them for consistently flirting with true greatness? And to their credit, we’re still willing to bet that they’ll eventually come up with that mind-blowing ambient pop album we’re convinced they have in them.

Many of Original Message’s drifty shoegazer jams are quite good, and when their combination of synth washes and jangly guitars works, it’s impressive. It’s when they try for a more overt techno-rock vibe that they falter, too often sounding like they’ve borrowed keyboard sounds from cheesy 90s trance. They fare much better when they go for a less bombastic and more relaxed synth disco feel.

Top track: Crystallic

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