tbtmo29
> Released: 12.2003
COLLETTE CARTER -
The Information and the Last Nite cd
CD
> 
8$ppd N.America, see katalogue
for overseas ordering
Amazing second full-length from super power-pop/rock couple comes on adorable and addictive with a broad appeal but a personal feel. It's the real deal from a real relationship- romantic and warm but witty and has an overwhelming sense of honesty. Quality songwriting/programming.
| 01
The More Honesty, the Better |
07
Daphne Deux |
| 02
J Period |
08
Cherry |
|
03
Minus Seven |
09
Space Age Love Song |
|
04
The Information and the Last
Nite |
10
Pursuant To An Agreement |
| 05
She Is (Softcore) |
11
Radar |
06
Makeout |
. |
> mpfree INTERNET SINGLE: Collette Carter - J Period
> mpfree INTERNET SINGLE: Collette Carter - She Is (Softcore)
REVIEWS:
Erasing Clouds:
The Philadelphia duo Collette Carter's first album The New Stroboscopic swirled together 80s new wave, now electronics and pop-soul in a way that picked you up and carried you away. Their new album The Information and the Last Nite takes that sweeping feeling and amplifies it 100 times. While at the very essence they're making simple pop songs about love and life and so on, there's a propulsion to their music. It lifts you off the ground - mainly by having a singer with a beautiful voice sing great melodies over forward-moving beats, and then, most importantly, by weaving her (often doubled-up) voice together with layers of synthesizer and guitar. You end up with songs that feel like a cloud (or a dream) but also bear the intimacy of a love letter. The Information and the Last Nite turns up the electric guitars and makes their sound even busier than on their debut…at first this seems like a mistake, until you get pulled into the groove and you realize that it's the exact opposite of a mistake. With 10 equally good original songs and a cover of A Flock of Seagulls' "Space Age Love Song," The Information and the Last Nite is as worthy of your attention as their debut; again Collette Carter bridges pop, rock and electronic music in a way that's intoxicating.
FAC193:
Rod & Wylinda, the duo known as Collette Carter, are back with the follow-up to their exciting debut The New Stroboscopic . This one’s called The Information and the Last Nite , a slightly different animal from their first but an inevitably satisfying listen. Wylinda’s voice is still gorgeous, occasionally spreading wings (like on “Radar”, where tons of overdubs create a sea of voice). A notable addition to their sound is electric guitar, which brings Last Nite ’s tunes a hint of a New Wave influence—“J Period” is a prominent example of this. The mid-section of the record is remarkably sexy, thanks to “Makeout” and “She Is (Softcore)”—these two tracks remind me most of their earlier work (in spirit if not necessarily in sonics). Also, who can resist a Flock of Seagulls cover? Their rendition of “Space Age Love Song” is pretty spot-on, though her vocal brings a notably more human element to the song (which is actually an improvement over Mike Score’s somewhat stiff take). The two-year wait was worth it: Collette Carter have returned with The Information and the Last Nite and it has greatly endeared itself to my ears.
Philadelphia City Paper: (Top Local CDs 2003)
If Rod Sledge and Wilynda's first CD, The New Stroboscopic , was an electro-percussive space symphony to a love supreme since their teens, The Information and the Last Nite is its married, mature kissing cousin -- a fuzzier, "80s-new-wave-inspired bit o' pretty twitchiness. Backed by quietly buzzing guitars, metronomic pulses, starry piano and bloopy loops, Wilynda's breathy, high-altitude vocals slide, slip and clip their way through impressionistic lyrics about characters less happy/more disconnected than she. Plus, they cover Flock of Seagulls!
Popnews: (Translated from French to English horribly with this)
Difficult to pass after the brilliant album of Robert Lippok. Especially when l'on hears the first second "The more honesty, the better", first title of "The information and the last nite" American duet Collette Casing: box at rate/rhythm cheap, guitar so much too eighties (of the "j'ai type learned how to play of the guitar thanks to Modern English"). Moreover, by dividing into sheets the booklet of CD (during qu'on was with the 7th sky to listen to Robert Lippok), one believed to see a recovery of, argh, A Flock of Seagulls. In short, all this history with Collette Casing (why not Josette Reagan, with the fact?) began badly. C'était without counting on Wilynda, the female half of the duet, and its moving voice. A voice combative and fragile at the same time, given and not very sure of oneself, a voice which expresses l'amour. Fleur. A voice able to go, run, crawl on Russian mountains, to flee or reach l'autre, a voice which expresses l'amour. Re-flower. Those which remember groups like Madder Pink or Velocity Girl see what I want to say. And when in more the melodies are strong as on "Minus Seven" or "She is (softcore)", this album of Collette Casing s'avère per moments very jubilatoire.
Splendid:
Before you go any further, let it be known that there is no individual Collette Carter -- or at least no-one by that name appears on this disc. Rather, the moniker is borrowed from a high school friend of the duo who make up the band, Rod Sledge and girlfriend Wilynda. The album, a follow-up to 2001's The New Stroboscopic , is packed with unique and beautiful pop music that owes as much to Sledge's home studio wizardry as it does to Wilynda's breezy, soul-touching vocals. You'll notice those vocals first. While Collette Carter's special blend has a lot going for it, Wilynda is out front, driving the melodic content of the music, often with overdubbed harmony woven into scintillating tapestries. Not the most skilled singer, nor the most emotive, Wilynda's sumptuous, folky melodies will haunt you long after the last note is sung. Her delivery -- at once stoic, earnest and vulnerable -- creates a powerful tension, like a butterfly with one wing trapped under a rock, or a flickering candle in a windstorm. Sledge's music is an able counterpart, drawn from rock, folk and electronica and pushing forth sublime slices of simply structured, unaffected indie pop. If you can call it a formula, it's one that the band rightly sticks with, a homogeneity that keeps things comfortingly familiar. "The More Honesty, The Better", one of the album's shiniest moments, glides within an outpouring of treated electric guitars, sparkling pianos, straightened synthetic rhythms and the occasional shift into subtle IDM breakdowns. Later, on the title track, the duo shifts away from the album's central musical themes, offering a swirling, almost ambient study of bleep bloop downtempo. "She is (Softcore)" marries its acoustic strum to beat box perfunctory, like Four Tet taking a garotte to Mark Van Hoen in the middle of a Locust track and putting on his own finishing touches after the mess has been cleaned up, while "Cherry", percolating with electro pop optimism, conjures the ghosts of Anything Box. And then, the crowning jewel -- a faithful cover of the new wave classic "Space Age Love Song" -- a testament to the duo's nose for pop music perfection, and my favorite encounter with A Flock Of Seagulls this month (VH1's Bands Reunited notwithstanding). On a label more known for their purely electronic acts, Collette Carter is simply a surprise -- and a pleasant one, at that.
Teknowledge:
Bringing together a drum machine, guitar, electronica and great pop songs, Collette Carter is a breath of fresh air. Traditional electronic pop songs firmly rooted on the human experience.
We Love Musique:
Can you imagine what it must be like to be in some indie band with your boyfriend or girlfriend? “Let’s do another song about high school break ups!” “Err, sure.” Results may vary – after all, who would Johnny Cash have been without June Carter? Too bad it couldn’t be the same for Wilynda and boyfriend Rod Sledge, the strumming/knob-twiddling/crooning duo also known as Collette Carter. The New Jersey couple is rocking some sensitive lo-fi anguish on this one – but well intended as it may be, The Information and the Last Nite is disjointed at best. The pop-rock/electronic hybrid is familiar territory for most, so a lot has come to be expected from those who dare tread this well-worn ground. Perhaps it is these higher than usual standards that foreshadow the inevitable shortcoming. Oozing with sincerity, it still brings nothing new to the table. At moments, tracks like “Space Age Love Song” and “Pursuant to an Agreement” come together in a rush of Blondie-like proportions, while others are frighteningly reminiscent of so many vernisages and vegan fundraising events. The DIY styles of Collette Carter are not bad, they’re just unchallenging, and therein lay the disappointment. Less can be more, but in this case less is decidedly less. Let this one ripen a little longer. 2.5/5
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