Electrelane

Originally released in 2004, ‘The Power Out’ was the Brighton based, all female quintet’s second album, and their debut for Too Pure. Having already established their leftfield credentials with their instrumental debut album, ‘The Power Out’ also seems fresher than ‘Rock It To The Moon’, perhaps because, paradoxically, it’s more focused than their debut, incorporating vocals for the first time, with the legendary Steve Albini at the helm on production. 

The noodly, jam-based feel that dominated ‘Rock It To The Moon’ is still here, particularly on ‘The Power Out’s more rock-based songs such as ‘Take The Bit Between Your Teeth’ and the closing instrumentals, ‘Only One Thing Is Needed’ and ‘You Make Me Weak At The Knees’. But overall, the songs are more concise here, giving songs like ‘On Parade’ and the lovely ‘Enter Laughing’ an immediate, if not exactly poppy, feel. 

The band find different ways to channel the ambitions it so boldly displayed on ‘Rock It To The Moon’: ‘Oh Sombra!’ is an eerie, passionate song fashioned from a sonnet from Spanish poet Juan Boscan, and ‘This Deed’ borrows a line from Nietzsche to fit its appropriately dramatic air. Most striking of all is ‘The Valleys’, a choral rock piece that features Chicago A Cappella and Verity Sussman’s arresting vocals, and attains a ceremonial, spiritual grandeur rarely seen in rock records. ‘The Power Out’ manages to be unique without being a radical departure. 

Now available again on delicious vinyl.