Cold and Bouncy

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Since the High Llamas first arrived on these shores with 1995's Gideon Gaye (the band actually dates back to 1990), the London-by-way-of-Ireland quintet has worked tirelessly toward crafting increasingly elaborate versions of the same album--an album that isn't even theirs to begin with. While single-minded devotion is commendable, head Llama Sean O'Hagen's obsession with realizing the pop ideal promised by Smile (the aborted "teenage symphony to God" attempted by the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks in the late '60s) now verges on a folly that's leading him to a hopeless (though admittedly blissful) oblivion.

Gideon Gaye presented a limited but highly successful attempt at an Irish-flavored Smile, while 1997's Hawaii offered a sprawling, blatantly derivative take on Wilson and Parks's mix of rustic Americana and orchestral pop. Now with Cold and Bouncy, O'Hagen incorporates Smile's banjos, harpsichords, organs, strings, and horn arrangements with a healthy dose of the electronic percolations he picked up from his work on last year's Stereolab album, Dots and Loops.

As the High Llamas get more ambitious, what they achieve is analogous to a computer enlargement of a sharp and colorful photograph: The boundaries stretch and the vision expands, but the material itself becomes increasingly flat and diffuse. Where pop elements are often handy in making more challenging music accessible, O'Hagen's attempt to expand pop's ambitions has yet to produce conclusive results.

Like past albums, Cold And Bouncy intersperses supermelodic vocal constructions between lush instrumentals for a series of pleasant but largely indistinguishable compositions. On a track like "Showstop Hip Hop," the computerized bleeps and blurps add a significant new texture which lends a wonderful sort of "dub pop" sound to the extended introduction. Once the song breaks into the verse, however, it surfs good vibrations all the way and washes out with the rest of the album. While the High Llamas search for the outer orbits of pop, it seems more and more like the group long ago exceeded the genre's limits and unknowingly floated off into space. --Roni Sarig

Cold and Bouncy
Average customer rating:

HAS A RETRO FEEL BUT ENTIRELY UNIQUE...

I give this album 5 stars because its incredible,

Gravitational Warmth

Thought I was the only one...

A pop masterpiece!

Cold and Bouncy
The High Llamas
Manufacturer: V2 / Wasabi
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Retrospective, Rarities & Instrumentals

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ASIN: B000004BSB
Release Date: 1998-01-27

Tracks:

Twisto Teck
The Sun Beats Down
Hiball Nova Scotia
Tilting Windmills
Glide Time
Bouncy Glimmer
Three Point Scrabble
Homespin Rerun
Painters Paint
Evergreen Vampo
Showstop Hip Hop
Over The River
End On Tick Tock
Didball
Jazzed Carpenter
Lobby Bears

Amazon.com

Since the High Llamas first arrived on these shores with 1995's Gideon Gaye (the band actually dates back to 1990), the London-by-way-of-Ireland quintet has worked tirelessly toward crafting increasingly elaborate versions of the same album--an album that isn't even theirs to begin with. While single-minded devotion is commendable, head Llama Sean O'Hagen's obsession with realizing the pop ideal promised by Smile (the aborted "teenage symphony to God" attempted by the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks in the late '60s) now verges on a folly that's leading him to a hopeless (though admittedly blissful) oblivion.

Gideon Gaye presented a limited but highly successful attempt at an Irish-flavored Smile, while 1997's Hawaii offered a sprawling, blatantly derivative take on Wilson and Parks's mix of rustic Americana and orchestral pop. Now with Cold and Bouncy, O'Hagen incorporates Smile's banjos, harpsichords, organs, strings, and horn arrangements with a healthy dose of the electronic percolations he picked up from his work on last year's Stereolab album, Dots and Loops.

Like past albums, Cold And Bouncy intersperses supermelodic vocal constructions between lush instrumentals for a series of pleasant but largely indistinguishable compositions. On a track like "Showstop Hip Hop," the computerized bleeps and blurps add a significant new texture which lends a wonderful sort of "dub pop" sound to the extended introduction. Once the song breaks into the verse, however, it surfs good vibrations all the way and washes out with the rest of the album. While the High Llamas search for the outer orbits of pop, it seems more and more like the group long ago exceeded the genre's limits and unknowingly floated off into space. --Roni Sarig

Customer Reviews:

HAS A RETRO FEEL BUT ENTIRELY UNIQUE..........2006-03-08

The tracks have a 60's pop retro feel, ala BEACH BOYS, but a completely unique, updated twist. The High Llamas embellish their arrangements with weird synth. sounds, bleeps and computer type bubble effects. After listening to it a few times, you will find yourself singing along with the tunes. Some of the tracks are instrumental, yet so relaxing and refreshing. I always feel great while listening to this or any other High Llmas stuff. So check their other cd's out.

Julius-Allan

I give this album 5 stars because its incredible,.......2004-01-11

but really, what is the point of rating anything. Everyone has different tastes, no one can tell another what they should and shouldn't like. This observation is particularly appropo with regard to what I consider one of the most incredible groups I've ever heard, the High LLamas.

This group is not popular. This album, one of my absolute favorites, a masterpiece, filled with the most beautiful and sublime pop music one could ever wish to hear, the single most evocative of summer album I have ever heard, is out of stock, and not because it keeps selling out. I used to be bitter that in America the Avalanches never became the sensation they deserved to be, or that musicians like this are marginalized and their albums out of print, but I'm passed that. I only write this review for the others who love this album, to show them that I'm out there. This music is certainly appreciated. Might I suggest we all convene at some point, High LLama lovers, like minded in our romanticism, love of beauty, exploring and probing sensibilities? This is the kind of album where if you told me you loved it, I'd trust you, and we'd be friends immediately.

Gravitational Warmth.......2003-11-24

An album of azure sunsets, Cold and Bouncy's title is almost ironically undermining. These songs are not gelid at all, but balmy and blissful. And bouncy? I think gliding, coasting or soaring have slighly better connotations. But despite the peculiarly misleading title, Cold and Bouncy is overflowing with delicious pop confections. Fusing the instrumental prowess of Stereolab and Beach Boy harmonies into an aurally pleasing, diverse record is no simple task, but the Llamas pull it off with ease. My favorites of the album are The Sun Beats Down, Painters Paint, Showstop Hip Hop and Over The River. Anyone like me who is addicted to the highly orchestrated pop experience should definitely pick up a copy of Cold and Bouncy.

Thought I was the only one..........2000-10-27

It's nice to know that at least a few others appreciate Cold and Bouncy as much as I do.

I picked this CD up upon hearing that these guys are essentially Stereolab. 'The Bionic Beach Boys' would be an accurate description of The High LLamas. Still they are highly original in their derivation. So if you can appreciate 'different' pick this CD up.

A pop masterpiece!.......2000-09-28

This is , my friends, the most misunderstood, undervalued, misconstrued and downright underappreciated album of the 1990's. After winning widespread critical acclaim for their Gideon Gaye cd, the High Llamas saw their popularity sink a little after the release of this, their 4th, and most ambitious album to this point. Critics bemoaned the predominance of the "computerised bleeps and bloops" which frequent the recording seeing an attempt to update the band's previous reputation as blind Brian Wilson imitators. Nothing, in fact, could be further from the truth. Melodically, the music here represents Sean O'Hagan's finest work to date. Utterly tasteful, never overly clever, imbued with precision and attention to detail but still hauntingly soulful despite himself, O'Hagan proves himself to be a master of tradition and his own creative powers. Far from being a "computerised" or coldly digitally sequenced affair, Cold and Bouncy is remarkably warm and analog in sound and feeling. Listen carefully, and many of the sounds are being produced by old Vox or Farfisa organs, dusty moog monosynthesizers, wood panelled beat boxes from 30 years ago, ancient vibraphones and worn out Rhodes electric pianos. This is hardly the technology of the modern recording studio, simply an inventive and highly imaginative musician armed with some good delay boxes, an open mind and a modicum of talent. Add some beautiful string quartets, trademark horns and harmonies, and you have another step in the fascinating de-evolution of this, the most interesting avant garde pop outfit since..... well, The Beach Boys! (There, I said it damn you!). The electronic computerised effects are far from the sterile bells and whistles that adorn most modern Moby-ish electronica . Rather, these are the classic modular sounds of Gershon and Kingsley, Tom Dissevelt and Kid Baltaan. Listen carefully and Steve Reich can be heard chatting with a heavily sideburned Bob Moog while carefully calibrating a Mini moog over a kipper tie and a club sandwich,somewhere in Buffalo, NY circa March 1972. Herein lies the secret of The High Llamas continued artistic success at the expense of their ongoing critical demise. They are simply misunderstood for the main reason that they are not listened to. Their music is not flashy, loud, immediately catchy or intended to achieve any effect in particular other than to provide pleasure. There are no walls of corporate indie guitars a la Radiohead or Yo La Tengo. There are no fashionable conscripts to loud rock or psychedelia a la other so called Beach Boys lovers, ie Apples In Stereo et al. There is no preening, posing, ligging or empty gesturing. There is only the beautiful sound of.....music.