opinions were like kittens i was giving them away. -modest mouse
there's nothing as something as one. -e. e. cummings
Interact
Discuss Carina Round and all of your favorite musicians and bands in our music forum/message board.
Have you heard this album? Give us your rating above, 5 being best.
Carina Round The Disconnection
Interscope Records
Severing or interrupting a connection is the literal meaning of the title of Carina Round's sophomore album, and in my opinion the description of the very flow to the album. The one word that could be used to define this album, in my opinion, is "bookends." It starts off so exciting with the two opening tracks which invoke a sound that is a tad disoriented, shadowy and sketchy but known to possess a powerful reaction, nonetheless. Then something happens in the middle chunk of the album, the passion seems to vaporize into thin air. Then just when you think there’s no hope of going uphill, the last two tracks explode back into a nervous and shaky instrumental pattern of disarray that grabs you to your core. She manages to start with a bang and end with a boom but the middle is just there, doing nothing for me. This is why in my mind she will be known as "bookends."
Track listing:
01 Shoot
02 Into My Blood
03 Lacuna
04 Paris
05 Monument
06 Motel 74
07 Overcome
08 Sit Tight
09 Elegy
The English-born beauty has already made quite a name for herself in the U.K. and also has a growing gathering in the states. Having opened for such acts as Ryan Adams, David Gray, Coldplay and Elbow, she’s definitely not a lightweight. Tragically she was scheduled to appear on the cancelled Lollapalooza tour that absolutely would have opened so many ears to her intriguing sound mixing a culmination of post-punk, folk, and jazz. After reading review after review about her, I find one universal theme flowing throughout them and that is the comparison of her to PJ Harvey. At the risk of sounding cliché to all the others, it’s so true. The positive statement of that remark is that 1) PJ is a very talented artist and 2) her sound reminds me of early PJ, which is definitely a favorable trait.
Keeping with the positive, the first track to the album “Shoot” is sexy and edgy with a presence that demands to be recognized for all it’s worth. It’s so reminiscent of PJ Dry era it’s eerie. The sound starts out almost deceptively innocent than morphs into girl power rock, which makes me nothing but giddy inside. “Into My Blood,” to me, is the highlight of the album. It’s hypnotic, it’s mesmerizing, it’s compelling and seems to scream "don’t fuck with me." The instrumentation is maddening but it's in a way that leaves you feeling like you just had an ecstatic orgasm. “Sit Tight” starts out deceptively timid but don’t be deceived, the track is raw, expressive and utterly beautiful. The ending track “Elegy” described in one word is perfection. The track makes my heart ache with lyrics echoing “something’s ripped me open,” and in my mind that would be Carina.
Balancing between ideas of desperation, compulsion, sadness, and peril; her sound manages to be poignant, reflective and always emotional. The instrumentation is awe-inspiring and the vocals are truly one of a kind, no matter what comparison is made to various musical greats. Intense, distorted, visceral, pulsing, expressive, and beautifully painful is just a taste to this collection. The more I listen the more I find myself falling into a dark abyss of powerful emotional dissonance. In fact the more I listen to the album the less I feel it’s like bookends and the more I feel like it’s a masterpiece.
Carina Round may not have the kind of slacks that court infertility and
she probably won't share a snog with another girl if it gets her video
played on MTV (although we can hope) but when regarding the essence of her music, there are few more arresting and striking sounds available to the human
ear. I wanna make people feel something, explains Carina on her personal
motivation. The music that I listen to most is the kind that reflects
something that I feel. After all, isn't that why we all listen to
music? To be excited and to be thrown into upheavel? Her second album "The Disconnection" is out now.
