REVIEW: Texas, The Hush (Universal/Mercury)
- Jon Steltenpohl
"For me," says Sharleen Spiteri, "this new record is not just our best yet, this is the Texas album we've been building up to throughout our entire history" Well, maybe. The Hush is most definitely the Texas album that finds them sounding, well, exactly like Abba. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I like Abba. I have their greatest hits CD. Lots of my friends have Abba albums. Erasure liked Abba enough to record a whole EP of covers.
No matter, really. The Hush is apparently the album Texas has been leading up to all these years, and we should take it as it is. No matter how much it sounds like Abba. At its core, it is an album rooted in the '70s. Touches of Abba and the BeeGees abound. We're talking songs like "Tell Me The Answer," which feature falsetto verses and sparkly percussion. Sure, there's some newer sounding guitar added here and there and some of the chorus arrangements sound a bit like Annie Lennox. But, you just can't shake that Abba feeling.
Sometimes, the soul sound is real. "Move In" is probably the best track on the album. It's a dreamy, laid back piece of UK soul that works very well. Spiteri's voice is smooth and sultry; her vocal touches on "remember all the times we had" is simply sexy. The addition of strange, high-pitched doubled vocals works pretty well, and Spiteri trades licks with a beautiful instrument that sounds like a muted trumpet, but might well be her own voice through a synthesizer. The bongo drums and the bouncy bassline in the background keep the beat rolling. It's a nice track (with barely a hint of Abba).
The lead single from the album, "In our Lifetime," is fairly Abba-free also. The Chinese-sounding background is a bit distracting, but the beat is okay. "The Day Before I Went Away," "Day After Day," and "Summer Son" are the most Abba-like tracks on the whole album. "The Day Before I Went Away" has a quiet touch to it and is a nice way to end an album. "Day After Day" is a sappy ballad that finds Texas trying to decide if they are Abba or any one of the classic Motown girl groups. And "Summer Son"? Well, it starts out with those nice ringing bells that just scream "ABBA!"
The Hush might not be everyone's idea of a great album, but it certainly has its audience. It's lazy soul sound with full vocals and a nice, steady beat is easy on the ears. You can dance to the album in a nice slow rhythm with your eyes opened or closed, and, in this age of excessive beats per minute, laid back isn't that bad at all. The sound of Texas' first two albums is nearly non-existent, and The Hush is much closer to White On Blond which was an international and UK best seller and virtually unheard of in the US. The Hush will probably suffer the same fate as there aren't many radio stations in the US that could fit them in their format.
Oh, and did I mention they sound a little bit like Abba?
