Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Why do we place so much faith in the apparently soulless, why do we show such devotion to the constancy of the hum of the electric heartbeat, pray to the lifeless length of time unresponsive friendship that a television or radio can provide…it is almost as if we understand our connections to the Inanimate Objects of the 21st Century are not only deep rooted, but a stage of slow evolution that is being guided by a pulse out of reach to the naked eye but felt intensely.
For Newcastle’s The Pale White and their brand-new recording Inanimate Objects of the 21st Century what transpires is not a sense of digging through layers of information to reach a conclusion, it instead, like the beauty of a film from the Golden Age of the silver screen, it is all there in the open, no subterfuge, no deception, just an honest connection between listener and artist.
In brothers Adam and Jack Hope’s generous and communication laden album, the sense of firmness and resolution is palpable, clear, undaunted, and its reveal is one of imploring for humanity to realise we have been judged for our naivety in the modern world.
As The Pale White, the pair have come a long way and in this new recording the further step taken is one of intent, of fierce intelligence in the face of preserving what was already built and being consistent in independence; and as tracks such as the opener Moth In The Headlights, the lead single Absolute Cinema, Medusa, Mannequin, and Disappoint Me fill the air with spirit and integrity; and in the cover of the song made famous by The Everly Brothers, the Felice and Boudleaux Bryant simple and yet brutally cool song of All I Have To Do Is Dream that sense of completeness is emotionally overwhelming, it strikes hard, and the momentum of the album follows through with desire and pleasure.
The inanimate often finds a way to make itself alive, injecting an unknown hand of the truthful soul into the universe. We have perhaps become a hybrid creature, pushed by the artificial, but one that requires the purity of imagination of the human experience to make it real; in this Inanimate Objects of the 21st Century is an eye-opener of the eternal soul.
Ian D. Hall