REVIEW: Belle Academe, Shimmer (Swingerland)
- Chelsea Spear
Listening past track four of this Los Angeles quartet's debut proved to be a real effort for me. It's not that Shimmer is a particularly bad album - they're excellent musicians, and the solid songs provide everything a modern-rock radio programmer would be looking for. Belle Academe just don't offer anything interesting to the mix. The band can crunch or swoon when the songs warrant, and lead singer Nicole Bahuchet has an appealing, though generic, voice - a few years older and wiser than the baby-voiced children of Lilith, but not as simmering with passion as Courtney Love (to whom she has been compared) nor as gossamer-pretty as Sarah McLachlan. The songs' majestic swirl might sound good under the spidery black light of a goth club, and some My Bloody Valentine fan may find this a good substitute while waiting for new material. Otherwise, this isn't anything too special or interesting, and I find I'd rather listen to older Lush or MBV and get the same effect with something behind it.
