FLOWERMOUTH

Angel Caught in the Beauty Trap is just gentle - some of the finest and most melodic solos and mixing you will find anywhere. Collins is brilliant without being overstated. Fripp is classic in his approach on this work - this is definitely during the String Quintet period and the gorgeous tone of his solo reflects it. The rhythm section is marvelous as well - nothing is overdone on this song. The remix is barer and hollow, but retains the shimmers fo Collins and Fripp while really bringing the lyrics and Bowness' vocals to the forefront.

You Grow More Beautiful - this pop song makes more people notice this album when I play it. Definite keyboard hooks and a lovely chorus arrangement. This song sounds like many other pop songs at the start, but the chorus takes the song to a new level of creativity.

Animal ghost - Reflects a bit of contemplative no-man - understated but with beautiful melacholic flute work.

Soft shoulders - get the remix to feel the force of this song - there was a lot of exploration involved in taming this beast. The chorus lets loose once again, making this song really work.

Shell of a Fighter - brilliant song and one of the more lyrically powerful songs on this album, it includes well conceives ambience and engages the listener with a bleeding edge fripp noise solo over amp modded sheared rhythm noise guitar - a brilliant fusion of dance composition with shoe gazing noise wall effects - a wall that pulses and beats with a ferocious and imitable intensity.

Teardrop Fall - The remix offers a stark alternative to this song - after hearing Why The Noise you will come to appreciate this song as it is incarnate on this album as a dancier version of the concept.

Watching Over Me - The swansong of the album, and lyricaly one of the most romantic and honest confessional ballads of anything I have owned. The string orchestrations are nothing short of miraculous - it is no wonder they played with these samples for two more albums... The first time you hear it - especially if you are a mellotron fan, it will make you cry.

Simple - Nice lyrical play with the distortion - is the name of the song simple or sinful? Hard to say in this lyric disenfranchised with the club - heavy anger of the guitar brings an end to club throb - brought to a head with an avantgarde frippertronic - again clear String Quintet material, and still just as haunting as the 13 minute original Threnody for Souls in Torment, considering the context of the song... nothing like falling off a musical cliff for a minute and a half.

Things Change - No-man has always had a talent for ending albums with brilliance, and this song contributed heavily to this reputation. By far one of the best electric violin solos this side of By the Light of Day - instense, well-effected, layered over a powerful percussive section which envelopes a jam fit for a king. A tribute to no-man's earlier incorpration of violin into the club.

As I said, no-man has always done a wonderful thing, releasing thoughtful remix albums to accompany each studio release. If you can pick up flowermix, you'll have a nice compliment of ambient and hard mixes to this must-have album.

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