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Morcheeba
CHARANGO
(SIRE/REPRISE)

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There’s something refreshing about any band who would invite both hip-hop legend Slick Rick and indie-roots oddball Kurt Wagner of Lambchop to guest on the same album. So it goes with Morcheeba on their fourth release. This British trip-hop trio’s previous efforts, particularly 2000’s Fragments of Freedom, felt too much like, well, efforts — they grasped at exotic influences without fully absorbing them into their sound. But here they’re ambitious without overreaching, transforming myriad influences into something comfortably cohesive.

"Otherwise" is an elegant synthesis of moody spy-theme orchestrations, powerful rock guitars, and supple trip-hop beats. Tropicália touches adorn "São Paulo," and hypnotic, slow-burning grooves hold the entire affair together, maintaining a downbeat vibe that keeps Morcheeba’s varied sonic experiments from running off the tracks. The curious combination of frontwoman Skye Edwards’s breathy, pretty coos and Kurt Wagner’s mannered croak gives a spooky resonance to "What New York Couples Fight About." And the breezy soul shadings of "Women Lose Weight" allow Slick Rick to make a grisly tale about killing an overweight wife sound funny.

BY DAVID PEISNER

Issue Date: August 22 - 29, 2002
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