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No Shouts, No Calls

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Electrelane

 
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No Shouts, No Calls
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Avg: 4.0 (179 ratings)

Brit quartet indulges their pop side.

  • We Say...

    Review by Todd Burns

    Fan of linear progression? Just erase Electrelane’s previous album, Axes, from your mind and regard No Shouts, No Calls as the confident follow-up to the group’s tentative 2004 pop foray, The Power Out. Axes made a virtue out of jarring transitions and jagged edges, at times making the group sound like an all-female King Crimson. No Shouts, No Calls, on the other hand, opts for sonic cohesion, begging inevitable comparisons to Stereolab.

    While Electrelane has the same jones for Krautrock and Farfisa organs as the legendary post-rockers, they regurgitate them differently. Whereas Stereolab is content to groove, the Brighton quartet rocks. Credit Mia Clarke’s versatile guitar — she’s glistening one moment (“Tram 21”), crunchy the next (“At Sea”). Given free rein by a tight rhythm section, Clarke, along with lead singer Verity Susman, gives each of these songs their color.

    Susman’s busier than ever on No Shouts, No Calls, singing on nearly every track (Axes was largely instrumental) and providing keyboard work as well. Her lyrics tend towards love (“The Greater Times”: “I’m tearing down the walls without you”), even if it’s mostly the kind of love you’d never think to actually write a song about. (On “To the East” she wants you to move to eastern Germany with her, on “In Berlin” she sings about freezing to death). Perverse? Sure. But Electrelane have always had a rebellious streak to them — let’s just enjoy their turn towards pop as long as we can.

  • They Say...

    Review by Heather Phares, All Music Guide

    Beginning with their breakthrough second effort, The Power Out, it feels like Electrelane has had a specific focus for each album. The Power Out itself added vocals to their sound, Axes concentrated on experiments in tension and release, and No Shouts No Calls delivers a set of urgent, romantic epics. This may not be their most dramatic album -- the women of Electrelane don't get around to their lock-groove rock until the seventh track, "Between the Wolf and the Dog" -- but its best songs are among the band's finest work. Tracks like "The Greater Times" and "To the East" are direct yet complex, with soaring melodies and lyrics like "I'm just waiting until you say these words/Come back, come back"; the contrast between intimate, almost too-personal words and the swelling sounds around them is exquisite. And while the album is dominated by intense, impatient joy of "At Sea," which rides glorious swells of keyboards and fuzzy guitars, its lightly heartbroken moments are just as lovely: "Saturday" boasts beautiful call-and-response vocals and lyrics that feel like a nursery rhyme about a breakup; "Cut and Run" pairs a lighthearted melody and ukulele with the painful realization that a relationship is likely over. No Shouts No Calls' instrumentals are just as strong as the tracks with vocals, and revel in the pure emotional power of sound. "Tram 21"'s mischievous organ and guitar interplay is jaunty and slightly trippy, while "Five" is the album's searing, insistent powerhouse. No Shouts No Calls might be some of Electrelane's most accessible work, but it's far from safe; in fact, its sweet vulnerability is exactly what makes it so special.

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