A year and some months, a new logo (-), website (+), label (?), and a producer (=) later and South comes back with their second full length album, With the Tides. If you live in the UK, most likely, you have heard of these guys. Their last record, From Here On In, was produced and released by MoWax main squeeze James Lavelle and made waves in most places, but not so much in the US. It had a couple breakbeat tracks mixed in with the other lyrical tracks, which may or may not have justified South’s home on MoWax. Judging by the sound of the new album, I would say the breakbeat songs on the first were more UNKLE James Lavelle than South. In other irrelevant to this review label news, the new more forward/less experimental South record seems to have dropped the MoWax name all together and to be replaced by Kinetic, the even more dance centric label that regurgitated their debut LP to America after it was appearing to do well in the UK.
You ever have that dream where you can fly (with or without Falkor the Luck Dragon)? With the Tides is the new soundtrack to that dream. Every song you listen to sounds like you could easily be relaxing somewhere with the wind blowing in your face at a gentle pace. The sound doesn’t veer much from the last album; the music is just more layered, more mature, a little faster, and more centralized. The chance and tendency to get lost in an instrumental part of a South song is definitely way down on this album as opposed to From Here On In. Although I really liked the more electronic direction they had on the prior record, I would be an ass to say that this album isn’t better, with or without the beats. I could cry and wish they had done it my way, but that wouldn’t be fair to them I suppose (hopefully next time they will call me first). Now that you have read this ramble, I will direct you to their website where you can actually listen to the whole album for free. Party!
1. Motiveless Crime
2. Colours in Waves
3. Loosen Your Hold
4. Natural Disasters
5. Fragile Day
6. Nine Lives
7. Same Old Story
8. Mend These Trends
9. Silver Sun
10. Straight Lines to Bad Lands
11. What I Find
12. Threadbare
More about: South
