Perfectly pleasant and entirely uninspiring, Morcheeba have stuck to what they know best with their latest offering, ‘Even Though’. No doubt Alan Partridge’s favourite boundary-pushing dance act, they’re clearly looking to inject a bit of credibility into their flagging, “Debenhams Sale Now On” appeal with some hopeful remixes. And who better to energise a song with vitality and imagination than a collection of Belgians! Duos: Mustang And Surfing Leons admirably lift the original to dizzying levels of mild and limp…a bit like having a korma at a Rotary Club disco. Actually, they’re probably really good tunes for having on in the car if you’re driving to a National Trust property that you’re particularly excited about. Vapid dirge – must try harder.
Huh? What? Sorry – I just woke up. Boy, they’re still going. Still going. Like those Beckett novels where the narrator falls apart and we follow the dissolution of the “I”, Morcheeba manage to dull the senses in a kind of death-march into a comatose fantasy-land where people dream about their record releases. Except this song isn’t nearly as exciting as even that may sound. Dulcimer laden sub-trip-hop rhythm patterns, sparse acoustic picking, floaty breathy vocals (literally at points) delivered by singer Skye for the first time since 2002 – you know, in case you were worried – this may as well be Cage’s 4”33 of silence. Skye sings of ‘hidden danger’ – but there’s none here, none at all. No intensity, no tension, nothing. (Apart from possibly that heavy breathing that bookends the track implying some kind of stalker situation.) They’ve sold millions so I suppose someone must like this shit. Mondeo Man, Q magazine readers, those boring dicks in bedsits across Brixton who’ll probably enjoy getting stoned to it. But why bother when the likes of the XX have leaped light years ahead in the kind of night-time wonder Morcheeba appear to be feigning.
