Archive-You All Look The Same to Me (2002)



I quite like sad, melancholic music but for the right reasons. When it's wrapped up in cutesy little bows of 4 minute radio friendly muzak then i'm not interested (a couple of nameless bands come to mind). When it's stretched, layered, measured and ever so slightly tortured then let's have it. Archive are a band that are relatively new to me but I have instantly fell in love with. Archive are not original. They steal little bits from Radiohead, Porcupine Tree all with a measure of atmospheric Trip Hop thrown in. They sound like none of it and all of it. With a couple of tracks clocking in at over sixteen minutes it's not everyones cup of tea but tracks such as 'Numb' sounding like a belated leftover from Massive Attack's 'Mezzanine' and 'Finding it So Hard' utilising an electronic drum template that Radiohead would be proud of, you have an album that is high on emotion and atmosphere. The highlight is the magnificent opener 'Again' that is a terrific slow builder of which an excerpt is found here ( the original is approx sixteen minutes):