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Rounds

 
Album Review: Rounds

  • Artist: Four Tet
  • Rating: StarStarStarStar
  • Release Date: May 06, 2003
  • Genre: Electronica

Review

For his solo projects, Fridge's Kieran Hebden is a lo-fi experimentalist who, had he been recording 15 years ago, would've been cranking out songs on a four-track recorder instead of a laptop. As demonstrated on his third record, Rounds, he's one of the few musicians capturing all the promise inherent in computer science -- being able to summon, manipulate, and mix any sound imaginable. The record offers something to nearly every audience that could approach it, with a bit of a groove for electronic fans, an obtuse sense of music-making for experimentalists, and a dreamy melodicism sure to endear it to indie-pop fans. The opener, "Hands," is especially breathtaking; it begins with a few seconds of drum samples, surgically inserted and ill-timed, but opens into a warm, melodic production with a simple frame-kit beat outlining Hebden's guitar-and-keyboard atmospherics. "My Angel Rocks Back and Forth" features a music-box melody playing against softly shaded backmasked guitar and a subdued, grating percussion line reminiscent of an iron lung. The nine-minute "Unspoken" alternates guitar and piano playing the same beatific melody, over another simple beat and tambourine claps. Though Rounds is experimental by nature, Kieran Hebden's gift for melody and emotional shading allows his records to be enjoyed by an audience wider than merely experimental listeners. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track TitleComposersPerformersTime
Hands Kieran Hebden Four Tet (5:41)
She Moves She Kieran Hebden Four Tet (4:41)
First Thing Kieran Hebden Four Tet (1:13)
My Angel Rocks Back and Forth Kieran Hebden Four Tet (5:07)
Spirit Fingers Kieran Hebden Four Tet (3:22)
Unspoken Kieran Hebden Four Tet (9:31)
Chia Kieran Hebden Four Tet (:32)
As Serious as Your Life Kieran Hebden Four Tet (4:48)
And They All Look Broken Hearted Kieran Hebden Four Tet (5:09)
Slow Jam Kieran Hebden Four Tet (5:18)

Credits

Kieran Hebden (Producer), Jason Evans (Photography), Matt Cooper (Layout Design)
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Wikipedia: Rounds (album)
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Rounds
Studio album by Four Tet
Released 5 May 2003 (UK)
6 May 2003 (US)
Genre Electronic
Length 45:22
Label Domino Records
WIG126 (UK) / DNO014 (US)
Producer Kieran Hebden
Professional reviews
Four Tet chronology
Paws
(2001)
Rounds
(2003)
Hella/Four Tet Split
(2004)

Rounds is the third album by Four Tet. It was released on 5 May 2003 in the United Kingdom; the United States release came the next day.

Two singles were released from the album ("She Moves She" and "As Serious as Your Life"), as well as one EP, My Angel Rocks Back and Forth. The latter features remixes of the title track by Isambard Khroustaliov and electronica duo Icarus, two new Four Tet tracks, and a DVD of all of Four Tet's music videos for Pause and Rounds.

A promotional version of the album was issued in March 2003. The only track different from the version on the final release is "Unspoken",[2] which originally featured an alternate piano melody sampled from the Tori Amos song "Winter". Because Amos' record company refused to clear the sample, a new melody was improvised for the official release of Rounds.[3]

Contents

Reception

As of April 2008, Rounds is Four Tet's highest-reviewed release on Metacritic, where it is ranked #4 on the list of best albums of 2003.[4][5]

Online music magazine Pitchfork placed Rounds at number 123 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000s.[6]

Track listing

  1. "Hands" – 5:40
  2. "She Moves She" – 4:38
  3. "First Thing" – 1:12
  4. "My Angel Rocks Back and Forth" – 5:06
  5. "Spirit Fingers" – 3:21
  6. "Unspoken" – 9:29
  7. "Chia" – 0:31
  8. "As Serious as Your Life" – 4:36
  9. "And They All Look Broken Hearted" – 5:06
  10. "Slow Jam" – 5:16

References

External links


 
 

 

Copyrights:

Album Review. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Rounds (album)" Read more