MarineVille ~ Ready for the Dance

n first listen it's easy to underestimate Wellington's MarineVille. Their sonic workouts are often understated to the point of obscurity. However, Ready for the Dance contains a few sucker-punch tunes that may just sweep you along with them.

At times the well-considered lyrics are rhythmically at odds with the music ~ sometimes sounding like a shoehorn was required to get the words in there ~ but the style works to their advantage, especially on 'The Ghost of Bobby Forster' and 'August'.

Images of the cold and the damp or of living an isolated urban existence prevail throughout, and musically there's a stormy picture being painted at every turn ~ perhaps most powerfully in 'Zero Pilot on the Ground' and 'Bird'. Even with all the down-home despair, Ready for the Dance is a compelling listen positioned well left of centre.

With music like this it's not unusual for [a] band to pass on vocals, taking the soft option of playing instrumental "road songs". Glad to see there's more to them than that. MarineVille take every opportunity to create tension, with musical resolution only revealing itself during the last two tracks, 'Red Eyed Dream' and 'Yoko Ono'.

POSTED BY Mark ON 01 June 2002