REVIEW: Drugstore, White Magic For Lovers (Roadrunner)
- Simon West
The second album from international quartet Drugstore is one of those records that reminds you why you spend all your money on music, scouring magazines and web sites for the latest artists and releases, wasting hours in used CD shops flicking through the racks. It's that good.
White Magic For Lovers adds Ian Burdge on cello to the lineup, adding a drama and fuller sound missing from the eponymous debut. Augmented in places by violins, horns, and even a mariachi band on one track, the sound here is more polished and complex than before. Singer Isabel Monteiro's voice is wonderful - by turns vulnerable, growling, pleading and demanding - beautifully expressive.
The album kicks off with live favorite "Say Hello", an ode to the "junkies, the sinners and the creeps". Other highlights recent single "El President", a dramatic, flamenco-soaked song about the overthrow of Chilean leader Allende, featuring a duet with Radiohead's Thom Yorke. "Song For Pessoa" is a haunting acoustic tune for Portugese poet Pessoa, "I Know I Could" is a plaintive tune where the dark side of Monteiro suggested by the self-made voodoo dolls on the album cover rears its head: "I could do so much harm / I could do you no good / I'll leave a stain in your heart / I would", she whispers over acoustic guitar and cello. "Mondo Cane" is a driving, noisy little bash with Moneiro in terrific form, growling and snarling; "You can stuff your beliefs and your nursery rhymes / I drink 'til I'm senseless whatever the wine / With no hope / No glory / And no Jesus Christ / We all turn into ashes / Welcome to the show."
There are a couple of weak spots - guitarist Daron Robinson occasionally takes over lead vocals, removing some of Drugstore's magic. When Monteiro sings, however, there's a drama, a spark and a shadow to Drugstore that I've not heard from any new band in a good few years. Final song "The Funeral" is a case in point - a lovely little waltz about dying that wanders through such typical images as snow in July, fireworks and roses, before Isabel, in a dreamy little voice, suggests "All my ex-lovers will talk through the night / Heart breaking tales of passion and pride / They will say / That I had a cunt made of gold."
White Magic For Lovers is a terrific album, the sort of discovery that leads you on endless journeys around record shops for that last b-side you need to complete your collection... Beautiful, dark, dramatic and melodic, one of the albums of the year. The sort of band a fanatical following springs up around, and quite right too.
