YOU ALL LOOK THE SAME TO ME

When I am listening this album I just can't press STOP button before it ends. Quite simple but wonderful, trans music. At the very beginning there is a masterpiece - Again - which has been for over year on the top list of III Public Radio in Poland.

"You all look the same to me" (12 songs - over an hour of music) is simply a tremendous and very spacey album. The opening and masterpiece "Again" (16:19m) alone is worth the money for this CD, but many songs are a little masterpiece in itself. This is one of the better CD's released in 2002, and I strongly recommended to all fans of PINK FLOYD and RADIOHEAD. Buy this album and you won't REGRET it! Their debut release too, as they're all great pieces of work and should be an essential part in your collection. BUY and ENJOY!

Since I started downloading mp3s, I bought more CDs than ever...

This one is by all means worth the cost; it's a long lasting addictive masterpiece (over 70 minutes of music) which makes you feel listening to it over and over again.

At least it works like that with me. Strongly recommended, enjoy :)

Jarek Armada (Yoplait)

Archive in the Archives!

I'd never heard of Archive until I picked up this album dirt cheap. The cover is enough to put you off, with it's 70's style US school yearbook photos.

Once you get past that though, the album is worth picking up for the first track "Again" alone. Those who enjoy the earlier work of Porcupine Tree will find much to satisfy them here. The song is similar in some ways to Porcupine Tree's "The sky moved sideways", with its hypnotic rhythm and building themes. The rest of the tracks do not achieve the high standards of "Again", but are nonetheless, of a consistently high quality. "Goodbye" is a more commercial ballad with bite, maybe hints of Bowie.

The version I have differs in terms of presentation from that shown above in that it has seven tracks, but some of the track lengths are longer with for example "Goodbye" and "Now and then" simply becoming "Goodbye".

It is ironic that this just happened - by complete accident - to be the album I chose to review immediately after my review of Porcupine Tree's "Signify," given that other reviewers have made comparisons between the two. Although there are some, I like this a bit better. / Archive has two basic "modes": Pink Floyd and, oddly (or perhaps not), Flaming Lips. Given that I don't like the latter much, I'm less fond of those compositions that are FL-ish. Archive also has an interesting knack for using fairly simple prog tricks well. And although I generally frown on bands that do not filter their influences (i.e., who "wear their influences on their sleeves"), I am letting Archive "slide" a bit here, since they clearly learned alot from their "master." / The opening track, "Again," is a shamelessly Floydian composition which starts with an almost direct lift from "Hey, You" and moves into a jam that is almost a direct lift from "Pigs" (You can even sing the lyrics "Big man, pig man, ha-ha, charade you are"- in half-time). Indeed, so close are these "lifts" that one almost wants to accuse Archive of "sampling." Yet even though the jam gets repetitive (in a way that Floyd is able to avoid), it is good, and the piece overall is both successful and enjoyable. "Numb" is a quasi-experimental composition, reminiscent of PF's "Meddle" period. "Meon" is a pretty PF-type song (with a hint of Moody Blues) which makes nice use of organ. "Goodbye" is a shameless Flaming Lips lift (it could easily have been on "The Soft Bulletin"). "Now and Then" is a nice, simple ballad for piano and female vocal. "Seamless" is another quasi-experimental composition that brings to mind both PF and Eno (a la "Before and After Science"). "Finding It So Hard" is the second FL-ish composition, which moves into an overly repetitive Floydian figure, and then back again. (The rhythm sounds suspiciously like "Tomorrow Never Knows" at double-time.) "Fool" makes nice, spooky use of mellotron at the beginning, moves into a FL/PF-ish jam, and ends with a nice "anthem-y" figure. "Hate" is, ironically, a ballad, and a pretty nice one. "Need" (the final track of the actual album) is a nice guitar/vocal ballad, and a beautiful, quiet way to end a fairly raucous album. The bonus track - "Men Like You" - is a maddeningly repetitive retro-60s composition, with touches of FL and, of all things, The Doors. / As general matters, Walker's vocals are good throughout; the drummer(s) should have gotten more credit (since they are integral in holding the album together); and despite some good sound effects, the recording is remarkably "plain," even "raw" in places. Also, because of the unnecessary amount of repetition, the album would have benefitted from a "trimming of the fat": it would have been "tighter" and even more listenable had it been pared down to about 60-65 minutes. / Ultimately, despite the shamelessness of the Floydian influence, I found this album far more approachable, likable and listenable than Porcupine Tree: the latter seems to "try too hard" alot of the time, and when they do not succeed (which is too often), they fall flatter than almost anything on "You All Look The Same..." [N.B. If you like both of these groups, I highly recommend Babble - especially their second album, Ether. Babble is not only much more "mature" than either PT or Archive, but creates soundscapes, effects, minimalist vocals, etc. far more successfully than either of them.]

Music can rarely be appraised out of context; when I want to hear a banging drum and bass track I don't put on NICK DRAKE, and when I'm in the mood for THE RAMONES it's usually not for melancholy introspection. Likewise, when I'm listening to progressive rock I don't care to hear the overly referential, self-conscious, 'modern retro' attitude so prevalent in trendy pop/ rock/ electronica (and almost any bookstore or coffee shop). It can be groovy, baby, but it's a cheap way to attract attention and you can always say you're being ironic to fend off criticism. In that way, ARCHIVE is a bit like those third-generation punk bands who get novelty hits from covers of cheesy old pop songs- or even worse, the recent "Scooby Doo" films. If I ever wanted to listen to a PINK FLOYD tribute band I'd pick one that didn't pad out their sets with flaccid industrial/ electronica flavors and sophomoric attempts at 'alternative rock'. I'm not totally against genre-bending, but a band really has to show something special if they are trying to combine obviously disparate styles, and ARCHIVE falls short. It's too bad, in a way, because it does sound like the individual members have talent and songwriting skills, but taken on any level this is a mediocre album at best. "Again" sets the tone for the FLOYD parts of the album, "Numb" for the 'we're so experimental' electronic indulgences, and "Now and Then" in particular sounds like something you'd hear at a teen talent show. Their music doesn't work as prog rock- they have neither the musical discipline nor the appropriate adventurous approach. It also doesn't work as industrial or electronic music- there are far too many 'modern rock' moments, and way too many truly original electronic artists out there to compare them to. As quirky self-conscious genre-defying alternative-rock types they have neither the energy of the FLAMING LIPS nor the inspiration of RADIOHEAD (nor even the ironic goofiness of BECK). Maybe in a year or so ARCHIVE will have a hit- one of those novelty one-offs that is fun for about a week. Maybe a reggae remake of "Dark Side of the Moon"...oh wait, even that's already been done. You may love the album, especially if you think that the MARILYN MANSON version of "Sweet Dreams" was groundbreaking and PINK FLOYD only got better after Roger Waters left. One star for ARCHIVE's wasted talent and another just for karma.

The song "Again" is admittedly quite a good one and has a nice floydian touch. Unfortunately the rest of the album can't keep what the opener is promising. "Numb" is almost unbearable due to an awful techno beat. "Meon" is more or less nice trip-hop music, but nothing special actually. Some songs are just too long and too monotonous like "Goodbye" and especially "Finding it so hard" which can't offer anything in its 17 minutes than endless meandering and moreover again an awful beat. "Fool" is quite a nice pop song but doesn't bear anything prog-related in it. "Hate" despite its title could be a nice lullaby, but has some nice brass included at least. Even if considering the good 15 minutes opener I can't give more than 2 stars for it and actually wouldn't find it worth buying for this song.

(Edited 10/09/2005)

For us, it's the best album of Archive - the perfect balance between art music and commercial music. The song "Again" is the perfect example of what we can call "the progressive trip hop". Sixteen minutes of pleasure, of extasy, of intense happiness - in the Pink Floyd's tradition. But there are also "Meon" which is a master piece of trip hop and "Goodbye" which is a very good pop song. Don't forget to listen to "Finding it so hard", but the album can be listened several times, non stop, without any problems. This album is a more a master piece of trip hop music than a progressive rock record. Recommanded for all audiences !

A masterpiece, Again is exeptionnal, Finding it so hard is tremendous but the song that I prefer on the album is Hate. I've enjoy this album for over a year now and i don't Know when I'll quit listening to this Album. Their debut release Londinium is also exceptionnal.Take the time to listening you will appreciate,I'll guarante.

This is poor - it's boring, without any real musicianship or composition skills. Just boring ideas reiterated over and over. Guarantee to put you in a coma. If that's what you want from your music, then go ahead and give it a try - you might like it.

The nucleus of Archive is Darius Keeler and Danny Griffiths who seem to break up every couple of years and then reform with a different style. Maybe that’s why they break up, differences in style. Well I hope they don’t break up again since their style is now perfecto!

Darius and Danny started playing trip hop around 1994 with lady singer Roya Arab and rapper Roski John but they broke up in 1996 (what’d I tell ya) and reformed the following year with different personnel and recorded “Londinium”. I haven’t heard it but it’s reputed to be a pretty good disc, though strictly trip hop. After another breakup our boys got back together with new members again and recorded their sophomore effort, “Take My Head”. Again I haven’t heard this but I hear they went Pop on this one getting some radio play and getting a hit single and also getting noticed. In 2002 they shifted style once more, to the chagrin of their existing fans, and released their third release, their tour de force (especially “Again”) and their best album ever You All Look The Same To Me - they have one more entitled “Noise”

You All Look the Same To Me

You All Look The Same To Me is tough to categorize. It has elements of their previous work but it is clearly veering into a floydian style of ambient electronic, progressive rock. The music varies from slow to medium paced, from gentle to driving. from melancholic to emotive. Some songs such as “Numb” are pretty monotoned while others such as “Again”, “Finding it so Hard” and “Meon” are varied in style, pace and content. There are interesting portions where instruments not normally associated with any of these genres are utilized such as Violin, viola, harmonica and trumpet. Archive have a capable singer, whose style reminds me of Smashing Pumpkins guitarist singer, Billy Coragan, is Craig Walker, who I might add is ably backed up by a couple lady singers.

Killer Songs

Truly a sixteen minute masterpiece, Again starts out innocent enough with a subtle repetitive acoustic guitar riff and keyboard backing Walker's melancholy vocal accusations: "You're killing me again Am I still in your head? You used to light me up Now you shut me down" Walker's singing is never better than it is on this song. He starts out, as the song does, gentle almost delicate and as the song picks up steam through the middle so does Walker pick up emotion. At about the two minute mark the song gets temporarily ethereal with an echoing vox and harmonica and violin/viola, I don't know which. Then the pace picks up a little with a distorted guitar, drums and a stronger harmonica. There is a classic Floyd sound from here on out. At eight or so minutes the song really gets going and the singer Walker is practically crying, he's so emotive. Sound effects are replete and you're saying to yourself, please don't end and then at about the eleven minute mark the music stops and slowly starts up again ala "Welcome to the Machine". By now you are practically drained but you know when it's over you got to play it "Again" and then you figure out where they got the name, because you'll play it again and again and agai....................

After "Again" everything is a let down though "Numb" is a pretty good song, with a driving beat and the disharmonic guitar is back for an encore, though what few lyrics are evident on the song are fairly unintelligible.

"Seamless" is a Floydian style instrumental, short but good which leads into the fifteen minute semi-masterpiece, "Finding it so Hard". Now this is no "Again" but if there was no "Again" it would seem pretty good. As with “Again” there is nothing memorable about the heavy beat medium paced beginning but at about five minutes we get a little Floydianisk atmospheric mysticism. Near eight minutes the heavy beat is back but infinitely more interesting. The unrequited love theme of the album is repeated here with lyrics like: “ I'm finding it so hard To make my life with you I'm finding it so hard To let myself be with you ”

CONCLUSION

I'll admit there's a lot of Pink Floyd in this album but with Floyd failing to release any new material since 1994, what's wrong with that. Some have said YALTSTM sounds a little like Radiohead and Porcupine Tree as well. I agree with that and while we're at it let's add Anathema and Pain of Salvation into the mix but let's face it, aren't there Floyd influences in all those bands.

This is one of those albums that may strike you as boring and repetitive on forst listen, but it will climb inside your head and nest there. A pitch-perfect blend of Floydian Space Rock, Trip Hop soundscapes and textures, Post-Rock guitar work and plaintive vocals, this is nothing the Prog purist should even bother with. But if you value innovation, invention and emotion, you can't wrong here.

Thoruhgly modern and retro at the same time. Few bands ever pull that off for long.

A friend of mine burn me that CD saying that i might like it, it sound prog. I said thank you to my friend and i put the CD on... What is that... It sounded all the same to me ;) I tried it again and again, no i don't have anything bad to say about that CD except that there was nothing in this music that made me whant to listen again or buy the other album. I lend the CD to my sister, who is a big music freak like me, and she didn't like it either. So 2,5 Stars for the music and a extra ,5 for the production.

I suppose that like most progheads, we started noticing Archive with this album when it came out in 02, and most likely heard their lengthy Again track. I had heard of these guys as Trip-Hop group and I although I appreciate the odd group in that type of music, I must say that I had never bothered to find out what they sounded like. And to my discredit, I must say I am still not heard what Archives did before this album, but what I heard on this album has not pushed me to investigate their previous work yet, some four years later. I did hear part of what they've done since, though.

I must say that over the first few tracks after this lengthy (but unrepresentative) again, I was sort of pleasantly intrigued, but over the full length of the album, fatigue, disinterest and boredom had set in. But before we get to the end of the album, let's start it, for a beginning!

Past this lengthy (16-min+) pleasant Floydish (mostly the keyboard layers) opening track, there are some rather energetic but introverted tracks such as Numb and the very repetitive other epic (15-min+) Finding It So Hard that still have Trip-Hop roots or the intimate Meon (few letters missing in there to spell the instrument featured at the second half the track) or the depressingly Radiohead-ish Goodbye. Actually, it is probably this last influence, especially in the Yorke-copied tone vocal that gets eventually on the nerves. I do not know about you, but I've had my fill of Radiohead-influenced bands lately. Also noteworthy is Fool.

Overall, Archives managed half a surprise, but in the end, their music , which is bound to please a majority of progheads, is not very surprising or groundbreaking and slightly too derivative to be really remembered for posterity. Not bad, worth a listen, even! But nothing essential in my book!

Plagiarism of Pink Floyd? That is probably an unfair statement but they do in parts sound so like Floyd that one loses focus that this in fact Archive strutting their stuff. ' Again' is without a doubt the high point of ' You All Look The Same To Me', even the edit mix makes for a great listen. The guitars and synthesizers swirling around amidst a contemplative almost hyponotic beat make for a refreshing progressive format for 2001/2. It was surprising that this song did not fair better in the charts. Actally not surprising as it was too good for the charts!

The rest of the album holds up OK but seldom reaches the same dizzy height that ' Again' managed. Other highlights include ' Numb' and ' Goodbye' but overall this album lacks consistency and can only be appreciated for highlights here and there. Check out the single ' Again' if you must.

It's a little hard writing a review for a band that I don't know that much about other than the fact that they have had several line-up changes and different lead singers. I have heard almost all of their music however, and regardless of who their lead singer was or they style of music they have played, their music is always quite impressive. This album is probably their first that could actually be called progressive, and that is apparent in the first track "Again". I actually found this track on You Tube and I was hooked immediately. I found more of their music on their website and decided I would see if I could purchase some of their CDs. However, for some reason, they are not readily available here in the states. So I have had to settle for their music being downloaded and of course the quality isn't as good. Anyway, I am quite impressed with this album. You can definately hear Pink Floyd influences here but they also have their own distinctive sound, and even with the changing line-up, I can still identify their music as being innovative. There are a lot of gems on this album and some of their following albums, and I may write a better review when I really get to know their music better, but I wanted to at least get a word in about a great band. Look these guys up and give their music a chance. I believe most prog-heads will not be dissapointed.

With this album Archive have written their name in the prog hall of fame!

Archive's best album to date starts off with Again - a superb 16+ minutes track that shows that Archive decided to become the first band to mix trip hop with PF-rooted prog rock. The song is very emotional with great vocals by Walker, it really can give you goosebumps. Numb is a psychodelic track with some heavy guitars at the end. Meon is a dreamy ballad featuring female voices and Goodbye sounds like a lullaby. I consider the next two short tracks to be the introduction to the great Finding it so hard - this is a very intensive and again very emotional song with some hard drumming. Fool is probably the most trip hop rooted song on this album, but I consider it to be one of the best. Hate is the weakest point of this album although I like the trumpet. Need is a short, yet very beautiful acoustic ballad. A perfect ending toa magnificent album.

If you buy the wersion with the additional disc you'll get 4 tracks with such gems as Junkie Shuffle and Sham. Songs form The Absurd EP don't stand out form those on the album.

To me this is one of the most important albums of the last decade. It's definitly worth checking out.

The third album from the band is their best one so far. Indeed PT and Radiohead are the guidelines (not so sure about Floyd). The killer track is of course the excellent opening epic. "Again" is quite dramatic and building crescendo (concept that I like very much).

From a sweet acoustic start, we are being driven into a strong electric frenzy. A great achievement for sure!

Unfortunately, the next "Numb" is a total disaster and a step backwards into the direction of their debut which was quite hip-hop oriented. This one is actually an awful "dance" mix which is best avoided. Believe me!

The languishing and beautifully cold "Meon" is quite close from some Nordic bands. Quite well achieved, shall I say. The melancholic "Goodbye" provides a lot of emotions as well. A bit poppish but inspired. Another good song (three out of four so far) which is combined by the subtle and dramatically short "Now And Then".

The remaining part of the album is less appealing. The second epic "Finding It So Hard" is rather noisy and repetitive. It could have been cut by half to shorten this lengthy CD.

"You All Look The Same To Me" started very promising but falls a bit flat. Still, it is a good album overall. Three stars.