Young Marble Giants- Colossal Youth

This album is like the smoke floating from a stick of incense. Calming, hypnotic, difficult to grasp, and it leaves a scent that lingers for hours.

That being the case, one can imagine the difficulty the critic finds themselves in. But Mama didn’t raise no quitter.

This album uses four instruments, counting vocals, and it makes no effort to hide it. The guitar or the bass sets a rhythm that acts as a basis for the entire song. There’s the impression that the bass line is the starting point, the base if you’ll pardon the pun, but it doesn’t dominate, rather the vocals and the bass work together to create an ethereal sound. That is mostly due to Alison Statton’s vocals which sound like Astrud Gilberto (of “The Girl from Ipanema” fame) singing “Every Breath You Take.” That pretentious description aside, it illustrates at least the ungraspableness of Alison Statton’s voice.

The lyrics make this album even more intriguing. A combination of simple but striking imagery (“I rearrange the atoms in my hair”) and expressions of emotion ranging from the simple (“I still hurts because you used to be mine”) to the abstract, bordering on cryptic (“Nature intended the abstract for you and me.”)

4/5 I’ve listened to this album a couple of times in preparation for this review, and can say that this album gets better with relistens. There’s just so much on offer here. That being said, I can understand if not everyone likes this album. But for some I think it could be a new favorite. Also I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that this was one of Kurt Cobain’s favorite albums.