"Empress" Empress review by Katie

This record is incredibly atmospheric, however it is difficult to classify otherwise. It could be fitted into one of those calming song of whales- type albums but the stinging melodies present in many songs prevent this. This is a meloncholy record, make no mistake.

Opening with the, optimistically titled 'If no hope', very much sets the tone of the album, leading you into an icicle-filled cave of cooing, ghostly vocals; underpinned as the song progresses by a drum sound that lends a Portishead-like quality. The song does build up from very sparse beginnings to a fuller sound but even at a lengthy five minutes, leaves you feeling that it was not you that "sold yourself short".

This feeling remains throughout an album which drones instead of enchanting, making pretty little melodies repetitive and meaningless. 'Your door is closed' is Sigur Ros, without the weird and wonderful Icelandic magic and even the haunting bagpipes fail to gain the beauty that is apparently being attempted. 'A Star at Sea' appears at first tuneless, but develops a nice bass sound and twinkling guitar, however it is in serious danger of becoming the soundtrack to student dramatists' star exercises for years to come.

Even the final track, 'Billie's Blue', has fantastically sweeping strings and looks like it may amount to something... but still gets stuck in a rut. The somewhat bizarrely titled 'Ballerina Beats' is rather like opening one of those jewellery boxes with a dancing ballerina, displaying a somehow endearingly childish piano melody. Once again, however this melody is somewhat overdone in the creation of the 'all -important atmosphere', somehow ruining the idea. This is once again in common with those jewellery boxes which always used to come to a bad end because they became so annoying.

It certainly appears that this band aim to say more with the sparseness and atmosphere than with the music itself and genuinely there is nothing wrong with this album, it has it's place and it's time but it could be so much better. This album is at once soft, vulnerable and beautiful at times capturing the magic of the likes of Sigur Ros and even, Lamb, but somehow loses its grip. Condemning it would be like kicking a kitten for being sick on your carpet, unfair and guilt- inducing but somehow, not undeserved.

3/5