Gelbison - See The World

Wed 19th Jan, 2005 in Music Reviews

Gelbison debuted in 2000 when Edo and Nadav Kahn got together with Peter Farley. Their debut EP was recorded in their Bondi apartment later that year and was released on their own label. From here the Gelbison story turns into somewhat of a rock fairytale. The EP was picked up by Ian Ball from Gomez who came on board as producer for their debut 1704. Fast-forward another two years and See the World again sees Gelbison collaborating with Ian Ball to produce their second album.

The opening bars of All the Rage are like the tastiest bait for an indie rock fish. I found myself locking onto them, really enjoying the whole song and wanting the entire album to be just as tasty. And for a while it was, Holy has a great hook as well and reminds me of great Brit-pop bands like Blur, with the jangly guitars, and distorted sound. In many ways, it sounds like the entire song has been filtered through a distortion pedal.

On Keep it Clean the band drop the distortion for a good clean pop sound, which harks back to sixties pop in the overall sound of the song – you can hear synthesised drum beats within the song, but adding guitar, bass and keys gives it that feel.

The only problem with having such great songs on album is just that, it’s an album, and an album is rated on the sum of its parts rather than individual songs. Some of the songs just don’t seem to me to be on the same level as others and comes across uneven. Tracks like The Snow lack the intensity and don’t feel as well crafted as those that standout. Now, whilst it’s a very rare album that doesn’t have at least one flat spot, here there are just too many flat spots to put it into the realm of great album.

On See The World it is often that ballads which fail to reach their mark, but when they do, they are beautifully touching. All Your Scars is a great example of this, the meldody is beautiful and Kahn’s vocal harmonies and lyrics are perfect. It’s frustrating to hear such great songs, and then to have others fail to reach their potential.

Current radio fave, Summer of Love is another of the songs where Gelbison really nail it. It combines a great jangly pop tune with touching lyrics. The stand out song on this whole disc has to be Poets. It is stupidly catchy, both the lyrics and tune, but its absolutely brilliant, I lack the words to describe it, and hope that Gelbison release it as their next single.

Whilst there are some absolutely outstanding moments on this album, yet the songs that fail to hit their mark really do bring it down from being a great album. I’m sure, when combined with the great moments from 1704, it would make one hell of a live show.