Review:

		10/10
		Artist: Ashbury Heights Title: Take Cair Paramour Format: CD Label: Out Of Line Genre: Electronic, New Wave Release date: July 2, 2010

Three years after the release of the debut album “Three Cheers For The Newlydeads” – and the EP “Morningstar In A Black Car” in between – the highly anticipated and long-awaited second studio album, entitled “Take Cair Paramour” is here. The album comes in 2 disc set featuring no less then 14 tracks on the original cd and a bonus cd with additional remixes and unreleased versions.

It’s been a little change in the lineup since latest release as Kari Berg have taken the place as the female voice of the band, and she is doing an amazing job. A beautiful voice and it works perfectly together with Anders charismatic voice. The album opens with “Anti Ordinary” which is a very catchy and powerful track with a great melody. The following “Beautiful Scum” adds an heavier and more distinct beat structure together with amazing electronic soundscapes to create that intrigue-ish atmosphere. While the very poppy and addictive “I Can Kill You So Easily” makes you wanna move, “Hope” delivers that unique Ashbury Heights-feel and drops the cliche-like chorus ‘I could be your love, and you could be my hope – I could be the hangman, and you could be my rope’. Moving on! Who would think Ashbury Heights and Alphaville were the same. Or is it just me who thinks Anders voice in this sounds like Marian Gold? Anyway, the song is pretty cool and feels a bit experimental and different from the other tracks. An album with 14 tracks could easily feel like atleast a couple of them have just been put there to fill the album out. But that’s not the case here. Every single track has its unique touch and offers the listener to a lot of variation. Be sure not to miss other amazing songs like “Shades Of Black”, “Unbearable Beauty” or “Invisible Man”.

This gets us to the bonus disc and I just have to start with this: The exclusive track “Sensual Nothing” is a true masterpiece and could easily be included on the main disc. It’s a melancholic and beautiful song with amazing soundscapes and the pounding bass together with the harmful atmosphere just makes it so great. Also included is two older demos from 2008. This is something that I think every bonus disc should include, maybe not demos but atleast put a couple of songs that didn’t make it to the main album instead of a bunch of unimportant remixes. I’m not just talking about this album, I mean in general. The remixes gives their little touch to the original, no doubt about it, but there are too many remixes out there that sounds like crap. “The Velvets” is a very different track and are more into EBM in between the choruses and it kind of reminds me of the US band Stromkern with their very unique style in singing.

Even if the debut album was – and still are – very strong, this new approach are even stronger and takes the band to a whole new level. “Take Cair Paramour” is very poppy, catchy, dark at some points, beautiful with great melodies and gives the listener an amazing ride into the electronic music scene. This is what the band calls New Wave 2.0 – and its a great name for what the album is. The only negative I can come up with is that I have to wait for more.

Tracklist:

CD 1

01. Anti Ordinary
02. Beautiful Scum
03. Scars Of A Lighthouse
04. I Can Kill You So Easily
05. Hope
06. Crescendo
07. Shades Of Black
08. The Ashes In Her Breath
09. Night Creature
10. Medicine
11. Dancer’s Nocturne
12. Kingdom Confession
13. Unbearable Beauty
14. Invisible Man

CD 2

01. Invisible Man – Electro Remix
02. Dark Clouds Gather Over Vanity Fair – Soundtrack from the short film Defiant Skies
03. Shades Of Black – Charriere Remix
04. Sensual Nothing – Exclusive Track
05. Unbearable Beauty – DeLorean Remix
06. Unbearable Beauty – Twisted Remix
07. Unbearable Beauty – Technological Remix
08. Traffic – TCP demo 2008
09. The Velvets – TCP Demo 2008