User:TangoTizerWolfstone/sandbox3

Release M&M

27th album, 3rd for Warner Bros, 18 March, European tour to follow

Igh Civilisation

• Courier-Post
  • In 1990 they "repudiated their series of Saturday Night Fever in a series of interviews", a recognition of their serious image problems, but the public cared not.
  • The album takes it "one step further". Self-produced by the band, and "have gone out of their way to sound like anything but themselves – the highly breathy harmonies that let everyone it's a Bee Gees song are purposely de-emphasized."
  • Unfortuntaely, it sounds like Yes. "The title track is a ridiculous slab of musical pomposity that recalls the worst of art rock (was there a best?)" "Throughout High Civlization, the music has a sterile, antiseptic feel of musicians who spend too much time with machines. If someone pulled the plug on their computers, all these songs would shrivel into nothing."
  • "The only commercial hope on the LP is if some easy listening – sorry, adult contemporary – stations picked up on the smooth melodies of 'Secret Love' and 'Happy Ever After'." Says, as a self-production, no one was there to curttail the brothers' bad ideas. The only listenable song, "Secrete Love", is unconcidentally the only under five minutes.
• The Miami Herald review is same as above, and credits the author properly
• South Florida Sun Sentinel
  • Says there's no reason it shouldn't be able to shift perceptions of the band as SNF. "With each recent release (1987's excellent ESP, 1989's One), the Bee Gees have put a bit more distance between their new and old selves. High Civilization is a pleasant listen offering everything for which the band is known: airy arrangements that sail over pretty melodies, fluid harmonies, strong musicianship and light production."
  • Songs: "Dimensions" is "a R&B-style departure track with a heavy drum track, while The Only Love is another of their standard ballads". "Secret Love", meanwhile, "has the best hook and is set to a catchy early '60s malt-shop beat".
  • "In all, it's a diverse set that should at least find an audience with loyal fans."
• Anderson Independent-Mail (Greg Kot, 2.5/4)
  • They "show a little muscle" on the album, not enough for a "triumphant return" but "enough to keep them from oblivion".
  • Instead of the "oppressively saccharine adult contemporary formula" of ESP and One, the album sees the Bee Gees "rebounding into more uptempo rhythms" (although it is unlike Saturday Night Fever). Songs with "rather tough grooves" include the title track, "True Confessions", "Dimensions" and "Evolution". "Meanwhile, their vocals just float away on the light 'Happily Ever After', soaring above the hypnotic interplay of synthesizer rhythm, bass and percussion", with the brothers also delivering "easy vocals against the heavy bass of 'Party with No Name'. "Secret Love" "eschews dance, but is harmless bubblegum".
• The Philadelphia Enquirer (3/4?)
  • For 87/89/91, possibly making "the best music of their careers". "The three albums are so uniform in style (eclectic, state-of-the-art pop) that they demand consideration as interdependent parts of a whole."
  • A "worthy" work "that sometimes stumbles on its own covert ambitions. It's a big album [with the Gibbs'] wide-screen, Technicolor approach to production so expert and refined that it's even possible to understand the lyrics despite the Bee Gees' usual tendency to slur."
  • "But the songs, from the soothing, assiduously crafted love ballad 'Happy Ever After' to the potent funk of 'Human Sacrifice', invariably include so many melodic quirks (such as the minor-key chorus on 'Evolution') that they play like shorts at an art theater."
  • Even high-octane dance tracks like "Party with No Name" or "world-weary quasi-protest songs such as the title track" "exhibit a worrisome emotional restraint" that perhaps make the album an anticlimax, starker and less well-performed than One but superior to E-S-P, but it concludes the trilogy impactfully.
• The Boston Globe
  • "superbly crafted", as per the title suggestion, with "inhumanly perfect playing and singing and meticulous production guaranteed to groove you without disturbing you"
  • "several cool tunes", including "Party with No Name" (a "Jive Talkin'" derive), though the Bee Gees have been here before, the title track is earnest, and some songs "stretch out lyrically" like on the slinky "Ghost Train" and "the relentless psychodrama" "Human Sacrifice" which is "one of the best instances of this group's well-developed harmonic sense"
  • However, the album "ultimately fails, stretching virtuosity too far and the tunes, no matter how well-made, don't contextualize each other. There's a theme struggling to break free, there's artistry, and the angelic, paradoxically knowing voices are aging well. The Bee Gees try to be heavy here, but it only works in small doses."
• Dave Larsen, Dayton Daily News
  • Third album since reunion, "less pop approach" than One (1989) "in favour of heavy production and monotonous programmed rhythms." "The group's high harmonies are buried by the bass and the beat" on lead single "When He's Gone" and title track.
  • "The unabashed borrowing of beats from Bobby Brown (Dimensions) and Mariah Carey (Human Sacrifice) attempts to deliver the Bee Gees' distinctive vocal sound to a new audience – but those sensitive young ears are likely to find the high-pitched parts of 'True Confessions' truly irritating. High Civlization makes it painfully clear that you can't keep a bad sound down."
• The Morning Call Harry Fisher
  • Without vocals it would be a "danceable film soundtrack. If the idea was to rumble the neighbors' walls, the Bee Gees have succeeded." The album is "good, even if it could have been better". Lyrics, as on SNF, are "odes about dating, heartache and romance." But, they "still sound inspired", despite their age.
  • "the Bee Gees prove they've not forgotten how to combine eloquent, three-part harmonies with solid songwriting". Unfortunately, as the vocals, usually the focal point in their successful works, "have been mixed into oblivion. Synthesizers, electronic drums and special effects dominate", as on "Secret Love", "When He's Gone" and "The Only Love", which gets "old real quick" after 30 minutes.
• The Record 3 stars
  • For several years, they'd returned to their "seamless, melodic pop songs" of old "with an updated state-of-the-art feel". High Civlization "builds upon the music of E-S-P (released in 1987) and One, an under-appreciated collection from 1989." Although mostly "a worthy follow-up to those albums, it sometimes crashes under the weight of its ambitions." Says the band are "at their best on the meticulously arranged, melodic love songs 'Happy Ever After' and 'Secret Love' and the funky 'Human Sacrifice' and 'Party with No Name'." But, "Where they falter is the art-rock songs, including the ponderous title track and 'Ghost Train'. Downplaying their voices in favour of heavy electronic instrumentation and studio gimmicks, the sound is sterile and unappealing."
• The Indianapolis Star
  • They're gunning for "another rebirth, this time with the MTV/VH-1 crowd", but "works like the cluttered, clanking and highly cerebral title track, which somehow conjures mental images of construction workers building a brink-of-Armageddon ladder to heaven, probably won't cut it."
  • "Human Sacrifice" is "hip hop influenced" and has "strange lyrics" what may "contemplate or depict some sort of sexual encounter", but "the vocals are buried deep in a mix that boasts a particularly infectious rhythm track." It's a "full-digital disc" (for recording) where "[t]he falsettos, harmonies and victim-of-love themes are all here", but not "the tender emotion" that characterises their work, as "It drowns in the cold synths and harsh drum machines that further stunt this album's already questionable potential".

Elsewhere:

• Chicago Tribune
  • Says "the production is bland Euro-disco", "the grooves give off about as much heat as a sno-cone and "the simple, crafted-rather-than-felt lyrics" are bad, but the real problem is "Nine of the 11 songs surpass the five-minute mark, and another just misses at 4:54. For 25 years the Bee Gees have remained one of the world`s most durable singles groups for their ability to pack hooks into concise tunes. ``When He`s Gone,`` which clocks in at 5:59, would be a decent single at half the length. True, the Bee Gees have stretched out on some previous dance smashes, but those songs could have melted this entire album."