El Perro Del Mar

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ALBUM INFORMATION

Total Tracks: 10   Total Length: 33:13

eMusic Review

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J. Edward Keyes

Editor-in-Chief

04.22.11
Party music for a party of one.
Label: Memphis Industries

The seventh song on the second record from El Perro Del Mar is called "Coming Down the Hill," and thinking of the album as Kate Bush in reverse is not a bad place to start. El Perro has all of Bush's faerie-like ethereality, but in place of her theatrical flourishes are downbeat moans, excruciating self-doubt and backing vocals that sound like they're being supplied by a doped-up girl group.

Sarah Assbring — El Perro Del Mar's one and only member — is a willful naïf with a waifish soprano and a childlike cadence; if that combination is occasionally a bit precious, the album's desperate melancholy more than makes up for it. "Party" is desolate as a beach at midnight, just a dry strum and ghostlike backing vocals. "I Can't Talk About It" is aching and eerie, a scratched-up Motown 45 playing on the wrong speed in an empty house at 3:00 in the morning. Assbring's motifs run counter to her sentiment: she re-works the sock-hop sound until it's dewy and hopeless, party music for a party of one. Though the record is purportedly inspired by actual events, it's better to think of Assbring's sadness as a conceit rather than a testimonial.… read more »

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Great minimalist indie rock

clubbaker

To my ear, this is what Julee Cruise would wave sounded like if Angelo Badelamenti played acoustic guitar. I write this as a great compliment. This album has great replay potential, and it keeps getting better.

user avatar

4 & 1/2 *s, rounded up to 5

Synthmesc

This is for the CD. I can't comment on the quality of the download, other than to say I knew I really liked this just from the samples and didn't fancy the 128kbps, so I bought the CD. I just love her voice and the way these songs are presented. It's really, really special. And it's growing - seeping in nice. The only thing that slightly bugs me is the 'be-bop-a-lula's, etc., they don't always sound quite right. Thankfully they don't get in the way too much. In fact, nothing about this music gets in the way; it just floats there, waiting to see if you'll pass by.

user avatar

another emusic double

theportablemr

if you are tempted to download this album then look at http://www.emusic.com/album/10999/10999409.html first. 'Look! It's El Perro Del Mar!' is essentially the same album at a much higher bitrate, and has two extra tracks, although this download has the track 'God Knows', which isn't on the other. of course, this one has a much prettier cover, but you don't get that in the download anyway. it would seem emusic doesn't much care for clarifying these things and just hopes people will make mistakes and not bother moaning. if you make a mistake then moan like crazy

user avatar

Late nights to Sunday mornings

corenaf

This is the perfect album for a late night of drinking, reading, & relaxing. It can be a quietly depressing album, or a calming joyful one in the beginning of a day. It's track list is consistent in mood and tempo. Lyrically, it is quite silly and naive, but that is part of its charm.

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This one is tricky

SwellJoe

The first two tracks are disappointing, even though God Knows is quite critically acclaimed and everyone else seems to like it...I find it, and particularly Candy, to be the least satisfying tracks on this record. As others have mentioned, Party is fantastic, and keeps me coming back to this album over and over--I just skip the first two tracks. Party is a damned near religious experience, with lights from the sky and angelic voices (and a hell of a great Phil Spector opening riff). Everything after is a minor letdown, but still well worth repeated and frequent listens...it's probably the stellar quality of Party that makes the rest pale rather than any lack of quality in the rest of the tracks.

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Coming down

zanyjuggler

It's sweet music. But what gives with the 128kbps files? It's true that quiet music doesn't readily produce audible artifacts, but strings and vocals really lose a lot of presence in the drop from 160kbps to 128Kbps. One of the reasons I love emusic is the higher bitrates. Perhaps preference in user settings to display bitrates of albums would be useful?

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Tadpollop Wellington NZ

tadpollop

Bigdaddy from Denver was maybe a little harsh, but this certainly didn't crank my tractor. I read the preview and some member reviews and it seemed to tick all the right boxes. But I was underwhelmed. It's catchy, it's quirky, but it lacks... something. Soul? It sounds a bit contrived to my ear, like 'Let's make a quirky Pop album. We just need to throw together these ingredients and follow the formula.' But hey, I'm not saying she's Britney or anything. I'll wait for her next effort.

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Boring

bigdaddy

You guys actually think she's nifty-keeno? She sounds deliberately boring to me. Is that her style, or just her inability to sing, fit into this?

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not so interesting

PeixeMan

pretty boring actually. 'hey my lolly-pop' meets kate bush, but without any real touching emotions...

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Catchy but Shallow

Thrizzle

The songs are all compelling sonically, but don't listen closely to the repetetive, shallow lyrics. Play it in the background, and you'll love it. Imagine if Chan Marshall (Cat Power) were singing (about nothing) to Air's music with some be-bops thrown in.

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They Say All Media Guide

With a voice that wavers between Jane Birkin’s and Neil Young’s, Swede Sarah Assbring, or El Perro del Mar as she calls herself, writes of hope and loneliness, sometimes at the same time. Cleary influenced by Burt Bacharach and Phil Spector, El Perro del Mar sings a kind of indie doo wop, bringing together syllabic backing harmonies (“sha-la-la-la,” “shooby doo-wop bah,” and “be-bop a loo-lah” are some of the phrases she uses throughout the album), poppy melodies, simple vocal lines, acoustic guitars, and twinkling pianos on her self-titled full-length. But despite these brighter, happier elements that envelop her music, Assbring has a kind of despair in her voice that veils even the most cheerful of her songs in sadness. “It’s All Good,” in which she echoes variations of “it’s all good, take a new road and never look back” throughout the entire piece, even in its optimism, conveys the sense that at one point things in fact were not good at all, even though they might be changing, and the breezy warmth of “God Knows (You Gotta Give to Get)” is more of a criticism of herself for “taking a lot without giving back” than advice regarding the benefits of altruism. More frequently, she doesn’t even try to hide her melancholy in horns and major chords. “Party” is utterly depressing, as Assbring sings with hurt heavy in her voice, weighing it down so that she can hardly get her words out (“I don’t want to stay at home/I just want to be a part of it”) as her guitar drones on forlornly, and “This Loneliness,” as the title implies, explores her own miserable solitude (“This loneliness ain’t pretty no more/Loneliness, only taking a place of a friend”). The songs on El Perro del Mar hardly contain more than a few lines that are then repeated again and again, but this simplicity only adds to their poignancy, and how intimate and real they feel, and makes the album utterly impossible to ignore. – Marisa Brown

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