"The Other Two and You" NME Review

TWO LIMITED

THE OTHER TWO
The Other Two And You

(London/All formats)

"IT'S HARD to go back after ten or 11 years and start again.. unless someone commits suicide." - Stephen Morris, 1993.

Nobody died so The Other Two might live, thankfully. So it was inevitable that the duo's long-delayed debut was never going to pulsate with the same sulky splendour as New Order, the same brooding sense of magic and loss, the same cliff-edge emotions and internal scars...

But if shot just the lack of ghosts hovering over 'The Other Two And You' which denies it mystique and grandeur. There's the sheen of married thirtysomething contentment which even masterful co-producer Stephen Hague cannot entirely erase. There's the palpable lack of tension with Bernard's petulance and Hooky's laddishness erased from the equation. Then there’s the striking contrast between these dinky electro grooves and the billowing stormclouds of 'Republic', like a booming cathedral mass drowning out breezy shopping-mall jingles.

Now the good news: Gillian Gilbert has an effortlessly brilliant singing voice and at least half this album is streamlined pop of world-class calibre. Recooked from two years back, 'Tasty Fish' still twirls with light-headed girlish glee before the more stately current single 'Selfish' glides in through clouds of candy floss. 'Feel This Love' is the crisp wafer of giddy kiddypop that St Etienne keep promising to deliver, while the deceptively happy piano-powered rush of 'Innocence' kisses goodbye to love with the cheerful refrain "glad that it's over". Swoon.

But the best fusion of form with function comes with the sleek Eurodisco drama 'Moving On', rewriting the desperate escapism of Thelma And Loiuse as a shiny autobahn ride to liberation: "We put the bags in the car and we felt much better... We’re never going home". Perfect. Swoon again.

However, considering Stephen and Gillian penned most latterday New Order tunes, the remaining moods and melodies are disappointingly nondescript. There are faceless instrumentals galore, some adapted from TV soundtracks, and songs which fail to distinguish between subtle understatement and no statement at all. The problem remains that, while the duo clearly don't want to rest on their ample laurels, they still sound too much like their former band to escape its shadow but not enough to bathe in its reflected glory.

So The Other Two And You' proves that pleasant, down-to-earth, contented thirtysomethings can still make terrific pop music. But it also sorely misses the added fizz that pretentious posturing, rampant egos and severed alliances sometimes give that music. The odd cathedral amongst the shopping malls, the odd ghost in the machinery, wouldn't have hurt. (6)

Stephen Dalton