PHIDEAUX XAVIER: FRICTION

I bought this album with a bit of trepidation. I have recently become quite a fan of Phideaux, and being aware that this album was out of print, I figured that if I wanted to hear where it all began, now was my chance. But all reviews here indicated that this music would not impress, and even on Phideaux's MySpace, he advised that the music here must be taken with a grain of salt.

The music here is not without merit, but it does not have any of the cohesiveness or smoothness of Phideaux's later works. This is a shame, because it does feature a lot of what has made Phideaux great; the vocals, the melodic sense, the contrast and the atmosphere. But, although this song rarely strays past the five minute mark, it feels as if it lasts just a bit too long. There are many good ideas, but each of them would feature maybe thirty seconds in Phideaux's modern works, instead of the 3-5 minutes they are given here.

This isn't a problem the first time through, where this album is intriguing; with 22 songs, one is assured that there must be something of value here, and there are enough moments on this album that stand out to give it the sense of having promise. But upon further listens, there are no further discoveries, no depth uncovered, and those few moments that made the album sound like it might be a grower on the first time through grow tiring on multiple play throughs.

Worth hearing once or twice if you are already a fan of this bands music and need to hear it all; otherwise, this very early work should be treated exactly as Phideaux himself warns: as a demo.