Nelson is a four-piece from our buddies from across the Channel, France, but don’t let that put you off because I’m sure they’ll be elements in Revolving Doors which will do that before you’ve even contemplated their origin. Nelson have created a minor buzz in the English press of late after ‘The (Over) Song’ made it over here, which even received the honour of being The Times newspaper’s ‘Track of the day’. Whether Revolving Doors produces eleven other tracks of the same quality is debateable.
Opening track ‘Slow Falling’ sets a dark mood from the outset with pulsating synths, furious cymbal tapping and a bit of random electronic squeaking that can only be in to throw the listener off the scent, but a good start nonetheless. A heavy bass line greets us in ‘The (Over) Song’ before handing us over to stop-start guitars and the vocals before we got lost in a wall of sound, imaginative drumming from Thomas Pirot brings the quality of ‘Silence In Your Mind’ up a notch, while ‘The Darkest Parts of Your True Confessions’ has more than a touch of Joy Division about it. Indeed, in some circles Nelson have been labelled the French Interpol and you can certainly see why on ‘Inside’.
‘People and Thieves’ is more of the same music wise but it is a mainly spoken word track which is a bit different but it doesn’t quite work somehow and ‘Seasons’ drifts even further away from what you’d have heard in the first part of the album. Nelson adopt a softer tone here and I’d even goes as far too say it was light and airy and it certainly makes a welcome change. They sound almost playful on ‘Acrobatics’ and ‘I [SYC] Stop’ is an album highlight but When it came to ‘Paid it All’ (a mess) and ‘Freakshows’ (self-indulgent) I often began to lose interest because, well, they’re not very good and the dark nature of the album starts to get you down after a while.
The production on Revolving Doors leaves a lot to be desired and the amount of filler here is too much to make this album worth concentrating on for an extended period of time. The bright sparks are too few and far between on this album, which is a shame because there are some genuinely exciting moments, mostly from the drumming department, but for now there isn’t enough here to warrant 45 minutes of your time.
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