 27 - Let the light in [HydraHead - 2004]After two full-lengths, 27 are back with an ep, Let the light in. The Boston 4-piece is now signed to HydraHead, which might surprise many since they don’t play heavy and slow music, but their own take on dark-pop. While musically surprising, the signing on 27 on HH is less so when you know that they have developed a close friendship with Aaron Turner (Isis, label-ceo), who has lately been constantly wearing a 27 t-shirt (or so it seemed to me). Actually, members of the band made an appearance on Isis’ Oceanic, a favour Turner and bandmate Caxide returned on Let the light in. Turner also did the stunning artwork. Sadly, it’s the best thing about the ep… When talking about gloomy, dark pop music, fronted by a female and signed on a label whose CEO belongs to a metal band, one might think about Bee and flower. But when BaF actually wrote good songs, and were great in creating mood, all we have here is mediocre guitar-oriented pop music. Uninspired riffs and melodies, a good singer but whose voice doesn’t seem to have much personality. And yet, they’ve been talked about quite a lot lately. Could this be indie-pop for hardcore kids? Indie pop for people who never listen to indie pop? Maybe. And if they enjoy it, who am I to complain? As far as I’m concerned, it’s sub-standard, highly unsatisfying. Worse is not the guitar songs, but rather the trip-hop “experimentation”. First, it’s less good than what Portishead did 10 years ago (can it be called “experimentation”? I doubt so), and Maria Christopher is far from being as good as Beth Gibbons. Given how much I heard about them, this ep is a huge disappointment. I’m not really familiar with their previous releases and I sure do hope they are better.    François Monti
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