Tasty Assessment: The Gift 'Explode'

Last week The Gift's latest album Explode went #1 in Portugal and is set for release here this summer. For those of you that missed it (buried deep in my back pages) here's my assessment of the album.

Album- The Gift - Explode

Started in 1994, the (now) four piece band, The Gift is to Portugal what The Tragically Hip was to Canada in the '90's, the nation's band. The Gift play big live shows to sell out crowds in their home country but, except for opening for The Flaming Lips tour in 2003, are largely unknown here in North America. Hence the video (see past  blog) for 'Made for You' the first single off Explode, that features Lukas Haas and Isabel Lucas performing the song as if they wrote it, in a brilliantly executed ploy to make the song/band more familiar to us. 'Made for You' is a huge success as a song wether or not you watch the video and it is not alone on the album. Explode opens with the synth driven 'Let It Be by Me'. A repeating lyric starts in unison and slowly bursts apart into an explosion of pieces that sounds a bit like competing stereos playing different songs in a single room. The track 'My Sun', with harp and gang vocals, sounds like it could have come from The Polyphonic Spree, where as 'Race is Long' has elements (driving bass and epic piano) reminiscent of Muse.

The third track off Explode 'RGB' really digs into the "arena rock", super slick production that comes naturally to them (and their producer Ken Nelson (Cold Play)). This sound is familiar and well executed but often goes too far into the super dramatic. 'Suit Full of Colours' and 'Aquatic', would serve a latin drama well. The twelve minute epic 'The Singles' starts off almost MGMT 'esque but then veers off into "prog rock" that ultimately leaves something to be desired.

If the American market is something The Gift are courting then Explode is successful in garnering positive attention. Perhaps they don't want to alienate their fan base but short of committing completely they may be more popular in the "world music" section then on regular rotation on the radio. 'Made For You' is a top notch track and they have clearly been listening to their own advice "This time you're not alone/ Get rid of old ideals/ Do something on your own/ Don't care about the things you are listening to" and we are all richer for it.