eMusic Review 0
Ever wondered what people mean when they talk about the "sound of Cologne"? Well, alongside the usual protagonists — Mouse On Mars, Wolfgang Voigt and his Kompakt stable — you could make a pretty strong case for Donna Regina, whose feather-light form of plaintive alt pop has been shimmering gently for some two decades now. Like so much of their home city's most memorable music, husband and wife Regina and Günther Janssen's style is defiantly simple and warmly unobtrusive, forged from drifting, naive melodies, twinkling acoustic strums and Regina's whispering, dream-like vocals. Indeed, they're widely credited as the first to coin the term "dream pop," in their 1994 single of the same name. It's a smoothed out, pastel-hued world they've happily inhabited ever since, and their 11th album is no exception.
The looping, swung-out jangles of the eponymous opening cut wrap themselves comfily round a barely-there rhythm section, which despite its pessimistic title, suggests through its upwardly arcing melody that there's a silver lining to the otherwise languid, reflective mood. A similar air of detachment pervades much of the album's inner fibre, creating a kind of inverted mirror effect whereby melodically jollier moments ("For Good Again," "Lost Sadness") somehow seem… read more »
