Review

"Want to know why
there's a dead guy
In my dining room"

Reader Requested Review

Blood Like Lemonade is the seventh studio album by British band Morcheeba. It not only marks the return of lead singer Skye Edwards, who had left the band in 2003, but also shows the band taking a decidedly more macabre route than they have on previous releases. Songs about fatal car wrecks, vampires, and dead bodies, are either heavily metaphoric or show a band embracing its dark side to stunningly good effect.

Kicking off the album are the tracks Crimson and Even Though, highlighting Sky Edwards' languidly disarming vocals and a pop sensibility that shows a soul influence. Both tracks amply demonstrate Morcheeba's complete control of their genre and ability to produce haunting songs. However the third track, the titular Blood Like Lemonade, shows the band able to focus on the pop mainstream with a song clearly intended as a single. While the first couple of tracks show a lot of mood and atmosphere, Blood Like Lemonade resolves as almost a ballad, the song has a tale to tell and that tale should have dark genre fans high fiving the people tied up in their basements.

Just when you think you have the album pegged as soul tinged pop, track four kicks in to blow away your preconceptions. Mandala, the first of two instrumentals on the album, would not be out of place in an episode of True Blood or blaring out of the speakers of a Chicago blues club. Apologises to my neighbours, hope you enjoyed it. There's a real honky tonk American blues feel going down that makes you wonder what influences Morcheeba might be labouring under. While Mandala isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, I dug it and gave two thumbs up to the change in tempo that ensured I wasn't going to be sitting back and simply taking the album for granted.

Ross Godfrey's acoustic guitar work dominates the haunting I Am The Spring that sees Sky Edwards at perhaps her most unrestrained on the album. Pretty hard to make that call as Edwards is very solid throughout without unleashing her full vocal range. Considering the song is pretty much a love piece it seems a strange choice for the album given the overall context. Track six, Recipe For Disaster, sees Morcheeba return to the overall themes of Blood Like Lemonade and their too cool for school pop machinations. The track is a standout both lyrically and musically, with Skye Edwards simply nailing it. And finally Easier Said Than Done rounds out a block of pop orientated tracks that exposed the band as song writers confident in their ability to mix and match pop styles with excellent lyrics. Skye Edwards' Brit accent comes through in the final track in an almost Lily Allenish fashion.

The instrumental Cut to the Chase shows Morcheeba's willingness to go experimental on us when we least expect it. Full of urban funk the tune captures a new Century's attitude of mixing musical styles with a 1950s style spoken commentary and morphed vocals. I believe Brian Eno has a lot to answer for, though Cut to the Chase does present an interest approach to what music should be, and you got to give the band two thumbs up for the funk.

For mine the penultimate track Self-Made Man threatens to derail Blood Like Lemonade at the bottom of the ninth with some clumsy vocals. The weakest of the ten tracks, there's still some interesting riffs to groove to, but the song takes the listener out of the album. Thankfully the final song on the album, Beat of the Drum rounds things out in sterling fashion with an almost rock anthem approach that is both irresistible and memorable. Clearly Morcheeba can get down and dirty when the muse takes them.

With the possible exception of Beat of the Drum the contents of Blood Like Lemonade are made to be listen to rather than being put on as background noise. It's been a while since I've sat back and simply grooved to an album rather than doing something else while singing along, off key for the most part, to tracks I remember from whatever is currently on the stereo. One of the better releases of 2010, fingers crossed Blood Like Lemonade sees a resurge of interest in Morcheeba, full recommendation.