Au Revoir Simone
Move in Spectrums
Release Date: Sep 24, 2013
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Electronic, Indie Pop
Record label: Moshi Moshi Records
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Album Review: Move in Spectrums by Au Revoir Simone
Great, Based on 10 Critics
Based on rating 83%%
Au Revoir Simone had a lot of things going for it. Formed in 2003, the keyboard-driven electro-pop trio had a distinct Brooklyn beat and three female vocalists who were simultaneously effete and yet instantly memorable. The band turned out three great albums in four years and then, in 2009, kind of disappeared. Four years later, Move In Spectrums is a return to form, for better and for worse.
Based on rating 8/10
Some records kick. Others thud and thrash around. There are kick drums that won’t relent until they’ve left you for dead. Some records have basslines that want you to shake-it, shake-shake, shake-it. Then there are the records that just want to make you chuckle. And lot of records go out of ….
Based on rating 8.0/10
It’s been four years since New York outfit Au Revoir Simone graced the indie scene with Still Night, Still Light. Self-released, the band’s sophomore effort established the all-female keyboard-armed trio as a force of spiraling synths, digital beats and swooning vocals. Still Night, Still Light may have gone under the radar for many, but the album was a hidden gem of quality songwriting that simultaneously tugged at your heartstrings and punched you in the gut.
Based on rating 8/10
After taking a very long break after their last album, Still Night, Still Light, the trio of singing keyboardists who make up Au Revoir Simone returned in 2013 with maybe their best record yet, Move in Spectrums. It's certainly their most sophisticated and most arranged work. Co-produced by the trio and the Violens' Jorge Elbrecht, the sound is huge and every corner of the mix is loaded with sound.
Based on rating 7.3/10
If you relocated Stereolab from a retro-futurist bachelor's pad to an indie rocker's Williamsburg walkup, you might get something like Au Revoir Simone, a trio who play old keyboards and sing simple harmonies over rickety drum machines. Their patterned musical figures and calmly rendered vocal lines create a sense of pleasant remove from their subject matter, which is usually devotion. Smoothing down charged emotions with something between plucky self-control and spooky disassociation, Erika Forster, Annie Hart, and Heather D'Angelo can seem all the more ghostly for how they blend together on record, which gives their most private and personal sentiments an airy, collective tinge of the afterlife.
Based on rating 7/10
Acts like Au Revoir Simone and fellow indie synthsters Chvrches are proof that the hushed, soothing techno-lullabies of Broadcast are becoming an increasingly pervasive influence on modern music. Not to say that any of those bands are straight lifts—in the case Au Revoir Simone, the all-female New York trio uses established elements to construct winsome pop songs that are laudable for their minimalist maximalism. What does that mean exactly? It means that while Au Revoir Simone aims for a big sound with maximum impact, it pieces together its compositions by using as few steps as possible to achieve that goal.
Based on rating 3.5/5
A lot can happen in four years. But with Move in Spectrums, Au Revoir Simone's follow-up to 2009's Still Night, Still Light, the band hasn't exactly reinvented themselves. What the Brooklyn trio has done is made an album that builds on their various strengths as a band: The lyrics remain wryly sincere, the Casio keyboards plumb new textures, and most notably, Heather, Erika, and Annie fully embrace the beat.
Based on rating 3.5
It’s fitting that Move In Spectrums, the new album by Au Revoir Simone, should open with the words “It’s been a long time coming / A long time gone away”. Four-and-a-bit years have passed since the Brooklyn trio last released a full-length record, the breakthrough Still Night, Still Light. Not that anyone in full possession of the facts could accuse the band of slacking in the intervening period.
Opinion: Very Good
Williamsburg dreampop trio Au Revoir Simone have been a bit on the quiet side since 2009?s Still Night, Still Light. Four years on, and many TV spots later – including an advert for Cheerios – the three keyboard warriors undertake a fresh journey, in the form of their fourth full-length record, Move In Spectrums. The threesome have garnered renown for their screwy alt.
Opinion: Fairly Good
Four years on since 2009’s Still Night, Still Light, Au Revoir Simone have reconvened to fashion their fourth album, the aptly titled ‘Move in Spectrums’. The time apart, spent finishing degrees, making solo albums and touring with various other musical entities has done little to diminish the band’s fervent love of keyboards, the trio in their typically blissed-out fashion, choosing to utilise them at every given opportunity. The band, whose dreamy pop calmly ushers in snapshot images of desolation and tranquility through super-cool synth pop melodies, strike as a group of individuals who are highly unlikely to run for a bus during the morning commute.
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