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Review:
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Portuguese band The Gift have a long and illustrious
history stretching back to the mid 90's, but despite singing
in English and being very successful in their homeland,
this album has already spent a couple of weeks at number
1 in the Portuguese charts, they have had surprisingly little
success abroad, although they have been on MTV and toured
extensively abroad, making some headway in the USA, and
their American management company Girlie Action look after
the likes of Tori Amos, Antony and the Johnsons and Morrissey.
Added to that, this first album for five years has been
produced by Englishman Ken Nelson whose previous clients
include Coldplay, Gomez and Paolo Nutini, (which reminds
me, I need some new shoes). ***
The theme of the album is an explosion of colours with
all it's connotations, “Trust the name Explode, Trust the
colours of the rainbows” ('Made For You'). You are going
to ask me what they sound like, you do like to ask some
tough ones don't you, well then, NBC called them “purveyors
of psychedelic synth-pop” and their Myspace says “Radiohead,
meets Beck, meets Bjork, meets Portishead”. I would also
throw Tears For Fears, The Beatles, Brian Wilson, Coldplay,
Muse, HAL, OMD, Jellyfish and even Pink Floyd into their
kaleidoscope, in short they take pigments from art rock
and pop's most colourful bands to create their own unique
palette. Vivacious lead singer Sónia Tavares has quite a
deep distinctive voice that harmonises perfectly with that
of Nuno Gonçalves with loads of terrific harmonies. They
paint a wide spectrum of sounds, effects and textures upon
each song's canvass, some are more conventional like the
catchy 'RGB' and driving 'Race Is Long', while others are
more unusual such as the quirky 'Mermaids Songs', the delightful
'Primavera' and the dreamy 'Aquatica'. The polymorphous
centrepiece 'The Singles' is about a guy trying to write
a hit song and it goes through a variety of hues before
ending with the wonderful line 'Stop it now, I just did
a twelve minute song” and they duly do – suddenly! Other
highlights include the sublime ballad 'Suit Of Many Colours'
and the upbeat anthemic 'My Sun' (live video on Female Voices
Blog).***
It all comes packaged in a beautiful digibook with
fantastic photos taken at the Holi Festival of Colours held
in that most vibrant of cites Delhi, with the band looking
like Jack 'The Dripper' Pollock living paintings, it is
great to see a band paying as much attention to the visuals
as the music. Anyone who enjoys intelligent art rock and
pop will want to hang this masterpiece upon their walls,
their gallery is http://www.thegift.pt/
, a technicolored 9 out of 10.***
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