Peacocks and angels have nothing on this.
Intelligent pop races throughout, layered to the point of becoming a towerblock of sound. The current that pushes each track is a glorious and all-encompassing one, where a team of clones is constructed to put the point across. On average, there will be four overdubbed guitars, the beefed drums that have been doctored again and again to flawlessness, subbed-up bass thumps and a choir of extras singing a range of backings, harmonies and independent parts. It's a sort of collage that would win the encouragement of Elbow, Doves and, dare we say it, Coldplay lovers.
(Vomit everywhere.)
What this means is that a sketch of a song is painted, sculpted, moulded and sliced up until what was once a human portrait becomes a near-perfect production that is now given the chance to stand up against multi-million selling rivals such as the aforementioned.
Huge sounds such as these will never ever be turned down by radio stations. They are perfect. It is a sound that is rooted in Today and is the work of a studio with the patience and the willingness to take something played naturally and coat it until it sounds otherworldly, with exotic vibrations and dynamics. South might find it near on impossible to pull off live, but what matters is that the songs were there in the first place and so even though they have been plumped up on a very materialistic level and coated in diamonds, they can be stripped back if needs be.
Take 'You Are the One', where beats and ideas you're sure have surfaced elsewhere are now given a new lease of life. Sections speed and slow down into different rhythms and so help keep the attention. It is a song you've heard before, but you won't care; it's fine and it's a good construct that can probably hold its own. 'What Holds Us', meanwhile, is terribly U2 to the point that you will check the inlay to see, just for sure, whether Bono and The Edge ran in and recorded a little ditty in their teabreak from saving the world and writing the libraries of JesusPop... Hey, it does the trick.
Bonus tracks 'Speed Up / Slow Down' and 'Bizarre Love Triangle' are mediocre and suggest that it's the sort of material that can only be destined toward b-side or bonus trivia, as they wash quickly by and, though they are very pretty and appreciated for their efforts, they were never meant to cut it with the real bunch. With the former, the literal cuts and production magic of sped up and slowed down music hints of a song being hidden and distracted by cleverness. The beats and low vocal line echo of Joy Division, but something isn't right. For once, they could've been just any ordinary track, but no, they're bonus material. So yes, kids! Get this limited edition shit whilst you can! Wooo!
'Adventures...' is that sort of music where the artwork adds that certain little something and helps untangle all the meaning and literary pap you could find yourself unintentionally wading into. Study the artwork for a second. Think. Reach for your beret, cheap and barely rolled cigarette, get out your big pointy finger and dust off your inter-interpretational soapbox... Good... Now, tell me what you see, you all seeing pompous art-schooler twat.
"Err, lavishness. Intricacy beyond belief. Prettifuls. A fantasy land of angels, wings everywhere, perfection cut and pasted into new shapes, making a guise of symmetry and... heavenly transportation... and colours. Lots of colours."
Yes! Yes! And that, my dear boy, is the essence of South! They are a divine sort of pop that drifts in the endless spaces of space beyond space, spreading their wings into the expanse and seeking that sort of ethereal aura that stirs the melancholic out of their comatose world of internet porn and broken dreams. But with anything that drifts, glides and flaps into the dreamy expanses, the messages from the vocals are, by and large, a secondary construct and get lost within the meaning and depth of sounds that back it (try picking out a catchy line without consciously searching and you may find yourself at a loss). The melody is strong and the heart is bloody and large, so there are other things to be affiliated to, but the whole body of South is one that needs to rely on its shimmering quality, its beautiful wings and its pretty plumage. The magnificent art, the fact that there are two bonus tracks and two video clips included all shout to you and demand to be adored. Don't look into South, for they want a sort of casual relationship with your heart. Any dissection of what you don't like and the reason why you feel they aren't wholly unique will fluster them.
It's all nice on the surface, but don't go investigating for there is but a normal skeleton inside. Pay heed to the surface of glitter and stars and be amazed at the beauty. Do nothing more.