NATURAL SELECTION

Being familiar with the band's previous material, I went fishing for "Natural Selection" and ended up being the one that got hooked. "Natural Selection" is perhaps the most sophisticated LANDS END album yet. If their previous material was wonderfully intriguing, this album is simply brilliant. As usual, the music on it is loaded with charm and allure, but it also showcases a cohesiveness never yet found on their previous material. All six tracks are absolutely divine but the real doozie has to be the title track.

Although you'll never hear me equate tracklength with quality, I guarantee you won't want to let this one down until you've heard all 30 minutes of it. It is replete with luscious melodies, weird guitar sound effects and time changes that come in so naturally, the track flows as one and even seems too short! The unexpected German lyrics at some point add to the seduction, but it is the combination of some achingly beautiful musical themes with the spacey, watery arrangements and tight drumming that mesmerizes. At some point, you may hear echoes of PINK FLOYD (the "Brain Damage" track from "Dark Side of the Moon" comes to mind), but you'll never mistake this music for some floydian sound-alike, bubble-gum psychedelia. It's unique, magical, fascinating.