Télépopmusik Album: “Angel Milk”

I, like many others, had bought their first album based on hearing and loving the single "Breathe." And, like many others, was quite disappointed in the rest of the album. Nothing else on it lived up to "Breathe."

For whatever reason, though, when I spotted Angel Milk on the shelf in the cd shop, I decided to give them another chance. And I am so glad I did. The band made a giant leap from mediocrity to greatness. I liked it from the first listen, but it was when I listened to it loudly in surround that I REALLY realized how great it was. The production is amazing. The most obvious comparison to be made in my opinion is to Bjork's Vespertine. Angel Milk utilizes a very similar concoction of "microbeats" with surreal vocals, and even includes some music box sounds that are prevalent in Vespertine. The other somewhat obvious comparison is Massive Attack, with its chill trip-hoppy vibe and mellow urban vocals by Mau on a handful of tracks. There is the made-to-order first single (and "Breathe" offspring) "Into Everything," which is safe and pleasant. And there's the surprising stand-out should-be hit "Love's Almighty," which indeed sounds like a lush, orchestral Shirley Bassey classic. I LOVE this track.

The only negatives to the album are the last few tracks. The third to last track sounds like an outro, but is followed by an instrumental closer that ends with a few minutes of silence. Then the final track comes in as brief spoken-word mumbo-jumbo and ends in fifteen minutes of silence. Very annoying. I don't understand why artists choose to do these things that interrupt the flow of an album. The last track should not have even been included, and the other two should have been combined into one track.

Regardless of these, the album still kicks butt. A very pleasant surprise, and one of my favorites of the year.

Telepopmusik gives us more dreamy fluff without the annoying rap filler this time. Yay! If you dug Breathe, Love Will Damage Your Health or Yesterday Was A Lie from their first release then you'll love this. The saving grace is there aren't any junky rap tracks on here like Let's Go Again or Da Hoola that clutter up the dreamy trip hop ness of their downtempo sound. With the exception of the Mau tracks that have an annoying spoken word/rap quality to it, Angel Milk is a solid and consistent disc. Highly recommended, ultimately satisfying and definitely better than Genetic World. Three and a half stars.

More like 3.5 or 3.75 stars...

I have to say that I was fairly disappointed when I bought "Genetic World" after hearing "Breath" all over the place. I just really expected to be completely blown away. While I did like a couple other songs on "Genetic World", such as "Smile", there was still plenty to dislike, for me anyway. I found the "Einstein's Brain" interludes alone very annoying and distracting. That said, I am still very happy that I purchased that CD. The two edits of "Breath" and "Smile" salvaged that disk for me.

I am happy to report that I was much happier with the offerings here on "Angel Milk". I loved "Don't Look Back", "Anyway", "Into Everything" (of course), "Love's Almighty" as well as a few others. Very sweet, dreamy and smooth, like one might expect from the title of the album. The vocals provided by Deborah Anderson and Angela McCluskey were flawless, as ususal. Deborah's voice is a favorite of mine.

The rest of the CD, unfortunately, felt pretty random and unfinished somehow. Mau's rap/spoken vocals just felt really out of place and I could have done without any of the tracks that he fronts. My opinion on this seems to be in the minority here, so maybe I am missing something.

I would recommend this CD to any Telepopmusik fan. If you are not one of their ardent fans, however, you may find this somewhat hit-or-miss as I did, in comparison to the other reviewers here.

Beautiful, and I would say that every single song is good. It doesn't leave you panting for breath, but it's not supposed to; you're supposed to float. And by listening to "Angel Milk," you do.

I love this cd. The guest singers are so mellow and sultry. My sister loves it too. If you ever want to feel good and sexy, play this cd. I highly recommend it.