The Works - Morcheeba Compilations - Morcheeba Album Review

Album Review

All you ever needed from three of the most inspirational acts of the past 20 years. A simultaenious release called The Works - A 3 CD Retrospective, they chronicle the back catalogue of singles and album tracks. Rea gets 54, Morcheeba 47, The Corrs 56.

Formed by brothers Paul and Ross Godrey, 1995 Morcheeba's best known song is World Looking In featured in a car ad in 2001. Amazingly, this duo, with oft featured female vocalist / co-writer Skye Edwards have never made the top 10 with any of their singles, but gained critical acclaim for their albums such as Fragments Of Freedom, Charango and Parts Of The Process, all making the top 10 on the album charts. Their unique mix of mostly laid- back funk, blues and electronica have spawned several imitators over the past decade. Pick of the whopping choice are, the swampy blues of Diggin' A Watery Grave, an instrumental barely 1 ½ minutes long, funky Post Humous, and gorgeous string drenched Over And Over on CD 1.

From CD 2, Fear And Love is one of their best ever ballads showcasing Skye's dulcet tones dressed by masses of sweeping orchestration. The track of this disc is the awseome The Sea, from The Big Calm ( 1998), a personal favourite. Another is Rome Wasn't Built In A Day on CD3. This is their most impressive upbeat song : chunky, plenty of brass, rasping guitar solo and that enormous chorus. Sao Paulo, is a dreamy gem, full of Latino sensuality, showing the breadth of their songwriting capabilities.

Elly Roberts