Blonde Redhead: 23

Label: 4AD

The best album of Blonde Redhead’s illustrious career captures the band at its absolute peak – never before have they been able to balance their avant-rock sound with an impeccable pop sheen. The album kicks off with the outstanding title track, perhaps the band’s finest, a tune chock full of buoyant synth undertones led by a driving percussion bouncing between snapshot fills and backbeats. Throughout, 23 maintains Redhead’s patented guitar aptitude but ventures into attractive and unexplored territory, substituting overdoses of angular guitar work for smooth, sleek textures, propped by guitar pings and rhythmic fuzz. A linear album replete with flowing atmospherics, a few characteristic six-string shreds and melodious climbs, 23 welcomingly lacks the frenzied Sonic Youth-esque guitar chatter of previous efforts for a fresher, more original sound. Redhead even offers some psych here and there, composing a swaying world of effects and soothing instrumentation (check out the Sgt. Pepper’s pomp in “SX”). The wonderful “Silently” could pass for a Top 40 pop hit from the 80s, bringing vocalist Kazu Makino’s attractive vocals to new heights, fooling even the seasoned listener into a twee-realm until the guitars ring in, ushering an undercurrent of lofty sonics. 23 is a brilliant record destined to be remembered as one of 2007’s finest releases. (Billy)