More than ten years after the Art of Noise left Trevor Horn's ZTT label to record on their own, original members Anne Dudley and Paul Morley reunited with Horn plus 10cc's Lol Creme to record another album, organized around the work of French modernist composer Claude Debussy. The group describes the album as “the soundtrack to a film that wasn’t made about the life of Claude Debussy.” While I hear remnants of what the groundbreaking group once was, I just can't get into the drum & bass and electronica sounds they've got working here. I suppose every group needs to grow and their sound must mature, but I was hoping for more of the Trevor Horn Beat Box-esque material that made me a fan back in the '80s. It seems that Anne Dudley (an Oscar winning soundtrack composer for The Full Monty) has more influence over the group's sound now.
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart
Tracks: The album is obviously meant to be heard as a whole, a sort of electronica tone poem. This makes picking out individual favs difficult, but there are a few that stand out to me: Dreaming In Colour (which is later reprised as Continued In Colour), The Holy Egoism Of Genius, and Out Of The World (Version 138). But the rest isn't for me. As mentioned in the album's review in Entertainment Weekly, this is a "flawed cultural casserole."
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None. This is probably only the second time I've listened to the disc in it's entirety. Disappointed. I must not be the only one that's disappointed: this CD is currently available on eBay for 2¢. I'll stick with the group's Best Of CD.
Previously revisited for the blog:
The Best of The Art of Noise (1988)
In No Sense? Nonsense! (1987)
(Who's Afraid Of?) The Art Of Noise! (1984)
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