An Eighties Touch To EBM
Lina | Singapore, Singapore | 01/03/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Alice In Videoland - the very name promises a wild adventure into something quite bizarre. And you bet the name delivers! The band makes music that is a powerful mix of electro, punk and EBM, with pulsating basslines, slamming drums all brought together with cocky and stylish female vocals. Formed in 2002, the band won Best Newcomers at the annual awards for independent music in Sweden in 2004, and now, with some changes to the band line-up, they are finally back with second full-length release, Outrageous.
It is certainly time the world sits up and pays attention to Alice In Videoland, Sweden's answer to the electronic music scene which has been far too safe and boring for too long. Outrageous promises to be more fun and more quirky than their debut release Maiden Voyage. In fact, it is highly reminiscent of early 80's pop and punk-rock... This music is a blend of eighties pop-divas Madonna and Cyndi Lauper with current punk-rockers Sahara Hotnights. A perfect blend that gives extremely catchy results!
The album begins off with the strong "Ladykiller", followed by the catchy adrenaline pumping "Cut The Crap". If the first track gets you only as far as tapping your toes, the second will no doubt make you get off your chair and get you dancing. "Emily" follows next, taking the tempo down, but the danceablility scale remains right up there. After the third track, things slow down a little bit, until we get to "Radiosong", which has some addictive synth lines. Then there's track number eight, "Bad Boy", which is much like the early nineties' hit "All Night Long" by Cathy Dennis.
It's great listening to this album in fact and it must be said that the up-tempo tracks are what Alice In Videoland do best for singer Toril Lindqvist seems to fall short in the vocal department when it comes to the slower songs. She however more than makes up for it with her attitude and personality, so no one will be complaining really.
Especially for fans of the eighties and modern lovers of synthpop, Alice In Videoland's Outrageous will be a treat. This is the best of the eighties with an updated touch. This is music with plenty of attitude and style. In fact, if Madonna ever needed help in deciding which direction she should be moving to next, she should probably take a listen to this.
Well, I certainly hope Alice gets stuck in Videoland longer than she was in Wonderland because frankly speaking, she seems to be doing pretty damn alright here."
Hot Electronic Rock from Sweden
W. Mccammon | Seattle, WA United States | 05/06/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Alice In Videoland are one of my favorite musical discoveries in recent years and 'Outrageous', their second album, is the reason why.
Incredibly catchy, riff-heavy, guitar-driven, electronic pop rock. There's no way I couldn't like it. Their first album ('Maiden Voyage') was a solid entry with several great tracks, but they really came into their own with this album.
Whereas 'Maiden Voyage' showed a band with great talent sorting out what their sound was going to be, 'Outrageous' displays a tour-toughened band confident in their direction and fully exploiting their uniqueness. They dive headlong into a more "industrial" sound on 'Outrageous'.
Their lead singer (Toril Lindqvist) has a distinct voice (sometimes compared to Dale Bozzio/Missing Persons) and a real knack for grrrll-power lyrical turns. I was surprised to find out that she had only recently begun singing after a long stint as a guitarist, as she has solid voice with a unique approach.
The other members of the band (Anders Alexander -Drums, Johan Dahlbom -Bass, Dominique/Carl Lundgren -Synths) all bring solid musicianship to the fold. The band have a very solid dance groove, using a lot of deep arpeggiated synths straight from the current electro-house club scene. The unique thing about AiV however is how successfully they fuse that synthetic sound with organic guitar crunch and heavy live drums from the alternative-rock scene to define their own sound.
There's really no "duds" on this album, but particular stand-out tracks would include: 'Radiosong', 'Cut The Crap', 'Emily', and 'Ladykiller'.
Clever songwriting, great production, and a distinct sound. AiV has it all. [...]"
Don't miss this!!!
XCosmopolitanxBloodlossX | hk | 05/30/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is one of the music that will make me dance around my room!!
Fun to listen to !!!
my favorites:
Badboy
Ladykilletr
Cut the crap"
