PIGGIES

Did you ever think that The Amazing could make their effects-drenched sound even more lush? Or that they would have ever made female vocals to so prominent in their mix? Or that they would ever resort to using cheap old computer drum machine sounds instead of Moussa's jazz-nuanced batterie? Who ever thought that music that was already so lush could get even more lush?

Here on Piggies they're reaching the for effects levels used by The Cure or Robert Fripp, OMD or Robin Guthrie's Cocteau Twins (or the whole 4 A.D. label!), Nick Laird-Clowes' The Dream Academy or the McAloon Brothers' Prefab Sprout, Steve Kilby's The Church or Bauhaus/Love And Rockets! It's atmospheric psychedelia taken to Elysian extremes. But it's good! Christoffer Gunrup's lyrics have never been more poetic: scaled down to minimal presence, they seem to pack more of a punch. Not much in the way of instrumental prowess put on display here, it's all about the mood: the most beautiful ambivalence humans can produce with music.

Favorite songs: The Cure-like "Figurehead," "Piggies," "Last Stand" and "Through the Cracks" (the two songs nearest to the band's old style), and "Cinnamon" (with the Robert Fripp guitar and female choir vocals), and the Dream Academy-like "I Think I Found a Way."

Though this is less a prog album than any the band has done--reviving more of the 1980s Goth-glam music or the 1990s heroine trippie music of The Cowboy Junkies or Portishead--it is an album that I enjoy more with every listen. Still, I miss the way the band would jam at the end of every song back in their early days.