REVIEW: Spell, Mississippi (Island)
- Martin Bate
This is the three-piece, Spell's, debut album. Recorded over the space of two and a half years, you really can't hold too much hope for them if this is the cream of 30 months song-writing.
Not that this is a bad album - its actually fairly good in places - but the songs don't consistently have the spark needed for people to really be drawn in and fall in love with them.
Their sound is resolutely lo-fi, with a garage non-production which leaves the songs exposed where they could do with some polish if only to add some depth. This is true particularly in the earlier recordings where the guitar has a tendency to sound like all fuzz and no meat, and the lead male vocals often clash dischordantly with the bassist's Juliana Hatfield type backing.
At various points, the guitar brings to mind Dinosaur Jr, Nirvana, Mudhoney, Smashing Pumpkins and Sonic Youth at various points, although without ever adding anything significant of its own and the lyrics are just a bunch of pseudo- meaningful phrases tacked together and repeated to fade, but the whole atmosphere is one of a band enjoying themselves.
People may well even be charmed by the Nirvana/Pixies buzz of "Mom", the infectious drone of "Dixie", the upbeat and bouncy "Superstar", or the psychedelic-goth-fuzz mix of "Straight to Hell" but ultimately there's a band like Spell in every town and I see no overwhelming reason to recommend this bunch over your local version who at least you can see play live once a fortnight.
