Personnel: Anthony Moore (vocals, guitars, saz, melodica, keyboards, percussion, programming, Theremin); Peter Blegvad (vocals, guitars, percussion); Dagmar Krause (vocals).
Recording information: Helicon Mountain, Westcombe Park, London (1997).
Those who actually heard Slapp Happy's '70s albums quickly realized that the band wasn't kidding with its smart-alecky self-description-"nanve rock, the Douannier-Rousseau sound." 1998's CA VA, the trio's first album together in 22 years, makes Slapp Happy's always-present pop elements even more obvious than before. Perhaps pop music as a whole has arrived at the far-point Slapp Happy staked out in the '70s, but CA VA sounds downright normal. Mostly.
Peter Blegvad's "The Unborn Byron" gives new meaning to the term interior monologue-the fetal poet announces his impending birth in florid metaphor-but the tune is lovely and haunting. Dagmar Krause's torchy Marlene Dietrich-meets-Nico voice, regularly derided back in the '70s, now sounds not unlike Portishead's Beth Gibbons, especially on the tuneful "King Of Straw" and "Scarred For Life." Prog-rock purists may blanch at the description, but CA VA is a pop album, pure and, fortunately, not at all simple.
- Format: CD
- Genre: Pop
- Released: 09/07/2010
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