Sore Eros – Second Chants

Sore Eros – Second Chants

Psychedelic trio Sore Eros’ debut album, Second Chants could either be the album of your dreams, or a deeply annoying self indulgent drone, effectively it’s the marmite of dreamy, hippy-esque albums.

The opener, ‘Smile On Your Face’, sets the tone for the whole album, buzzing distortion combined with simple acoustic guitars and drums, but the problems begin with singer Robert Robinson’s vocals.  Whilst possessing a gentle gliding quality they unfortunately also sound exactly like the voice of Herbert, the pedophile from Family Guy, on the plus side, if you like your music sung in the style of comedy sex offenders, this is the album for you.

Worryingly the Herbert voice continues throughout the album, with relief being offered by songs such as ‘In My Heart’, where Robinson’s voice takes on a more uninterested droning quality and in ‘One By One’, where there are so many effects used on the vocals that it’s hard to tell what’s being sung and how.

Instrumentally the album is a perfect example of the great things that can be done without being overcomplicated; guitars, drums, harmonicas and synthesisers come together to create massive soundscapes without ever sounding like parts are there just for the sake of it, although at times (presumably intentionally) out of tune instruments are used, which rather than sounding raw or interesting, will just make you cringe.

It always saddens me when an album has this much potential only to go horribly wrong, but the clashing out of tune vocals are at times so earth shatteringly bad that they drag the rest of the album down into a swirling vortex of far too much echo, another problem from which this album suffers.  It’s as though the band suddenly discovered audio effects and decided to use as much as possible at once, making parts inaudible or just plain unpleasant.

If you’re a fan of experimental psychedelic pop, and you’ve never seen Family Guy, this album might be for you, without anything to compare it to Robinson’s voice might seem just  bit interesting rather than just slightly disturbing.

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