FROSTING

Well, at least the title fits. Not much of substance here. Bent Knee has chosen to go with an electronic, poppy sound that is heavily and coarsely produced. The songs and arrangements are commonplace, with a few exceptions. Gone is most of Ben Levin's guitar (electric and acoustic), at least in recognizable form. There are nice piano-based moments, but mostly we hear washes of sythns, midi patches and noise. Jessica Kion's bass has been digitized out of existence. Gavin Wallace-Ailsworth's superb drumming meets a similar fate. Chris Baum might as well have stayed home - I hear almost no violin at all. They have one of the best singers in the business (Courtney Swain), and she sounds very average on this record, her voice distorted by auto tune, echo effects and reverb, too often swamped by the mix.

The most important person in Bent Knee seems to have become Vince Welch, the guy with the laptop at the back of Bent Knee's live shows. I find his manipulations mildly irritating live (especially when Swain's voice is altered), but as the producer on this record he seems to have run amok. The sound seems constantly tinkered with, with unpleasant results.

This from a wonderfully talented band that produced three great albums in a row (Shiny Eyed Babies, Say So, Land Animal), and some extraordinary live stuff on youtube, including "Paper Earth", which is so gorgeous I think they should release it as a DVD/BluRay. They really need to get back to what made them unique, which is focusing on Swain's extraordinary voice, and creating meticulous, beautiful arrangements with real instruments. Until then, they're just another alt-rock band.

A reluctant one star for me.