Faultline

'Your Love Means Everything'



Elektra



Grade: C-



Just looking at the title of this debut CD by Faultline, a new electronic group hailing from the United Kingdom, one gets the feeling the men behind this project are desperate for recognition. Our love means everything to them, so we better not let them down. Unfortunately, the audience is the one who is let down in the end.

The album boasts some impressive guests who contribute vocals to this largely instrumental offering. Chris Martin, known as the lilting, breaking voice of Coldplay, sings on two tracks, including the vocal remix of the title track. The first track Martin guests on, "Where Is My Boy?" is one of the better tracks on the album. Martin's rough, broken vocals are superimposed on a mellow instrumental track that, while not the most innovative of electronic instrumentals, is perfect for sitting in your room and chilling out. Other collaborations are far less successful, including those between Faultline, Cannibal Ox, Jacob Golden, and Wayne Coyne.

"Bitter Kiss," which boasts the vocals of former-Birthday frontman Jacob Golden, sounds like a rip-off of a bad Enrique Iglesias song, with a singer who hasn't sung in months. Golden's weak voice serves only to make him sound inexperienced, not devastated. Faultline's weak and contrived backing instrumentals do not help either.

The same contrivance is heavily laced through "The Colossal Gray Sunshine," which features vocals by Coyne, of Flaming Lips fame. The song sadly features off-key harmonies, contrived electronic flutes and trite lyrics like "Suddenly there was no shine left in the sun / You're turning off the sun / You're turning off the sun / By turning off your love."

And, even worse is "Waiting for the Green Light," their collaboration with Cannibal Ox, a highly respected independent rap group. The rhythm of Faultine's instrumental track is completely different than Cannibal Ox's rhymes, and the samples chosen clash with both the mood of the song, and the other samples on the track.

Their instrumental offerings are equally uninspiring. With the exception of "Sweet Iris," a hard driving groove that is reminiscent of Tricky in his "Maxinquaye" period, most instrumentals are slow and tepid, with very little change and very little creativity. In fact, quite a few of them are hard to sit through. Be ready with your finger on the "skip" button for those.

The one high note of this album, however, is very high. Faultline tapped R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe to provide the vocals for their cover of Brother Four's "Greenfields," a lilting, Irish-inspired tune. Faultline provides a perfect ambient and calming backing track to compliment Stipe's yearning vocals. The song is both affecting and inspiring, and this reviewer's only complaint is that Faultline didn't take advantage of Stipe's gorgeous upper vocal range.

"Greenfields" aside, "Your Love Means Everything" is not the exciting album it claims to be. It is mellow, often contrived, and definitely not worth the hype.