CHRISTINA ROSENVINGE
Continental 62
Smells Like Records
· Sonic Youth protégée delivers intercontinental alt-pop classic on third try.
I can’t think of a less likely place to find Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley than playing backup for former Latin American teen idol Christina Rosenvinge. However, this lot have been working on a mid-Atlantic fusion of American and continental European alternative pop sensibilities for the past six years, and they finally seem to have got it right.
While their first outing was a bit too derivative, and the second a bit too preoccupied with songwriting and not enough with sound texture, Continental 62 touches all bases, with solid melodies, sensible lyrics, imaginative arrangements and a broad variety of songs. These range from the intimate to the epic, piano or guitar-based, acoustic or amplified, orchestral or stripped-down, in English or Spanish.
The musical references range from Stockhausen to Drugstore, but they seem to have aimed for a mix of the less idiosyncratic elements of Stina Nordenstam and Cat Power, and the result is a lot like Cybele’s latest, with guitar pop replacing the electronica influences. In short, an intelligent fusion of currently accepted alternative pop forms that avoids clichés without confusing the children.
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