aaamusic | On 26, May 2012

So the first time around, I thought that the reason listening to this made me angry was because I was changing the strings on a bass at the time, which is a surefire recipe for frustration and shouted expletives. But unfortunately, although Mark Northfield’s ‘Alterations’ might not provoke the same amount of rage, but listening to it still proves arduous, to say the least.
So, what is it about this album? I don’t know – in many respects it is a smart and snappy beast. Opener ‘The Death Of Copyright’ opens well in enough if you ignore the presumably tongue-in-cheek autotune, with its stomping orchestral electro instrumentation, but it then fails to really go anywhere. It has a good start, poking at the cynical “efficient” music industry, but in escaping into the “kooky” vaudeville trappings of ‘Alterations’ as a whole, it escapes its own sense of direction into the world of multilingual renditions of the same chorus and lush yet mildly unnecessary showtune. Electro rises again of the Daft Punk vocal processing of ‘Headlonging’ which grates horribly against the cascading piano and stabbing strings. Second, we get the gothic waltz ‘Some Songs’, with its harpsichord and unbelievably thick chorus on the bass, building into a semi-operatic peak. It’s all rather well-executed, but again lacks a sense of purpose. ‘Nothing Impossible’ also steals the dark cabaret stick with its moody buzzsaw rock guitar lurking behind velvet piano and deep, melodic vocals. But despite its excellent chorus with its delicious melody, the rest of the song fails to click for all its lyrical sensitivity. As for ‘You Don’t Need Me To Tell You That’, for once the sporadically witty lyrics and male/female dialogue vocals hit their stride in a big payoff, with a showtune brilliance in the piano-led music, but although this proves a welcome relief the tweeness of it all sits well for one song but loses its appeal quickly after that. ‘The Up Shit Creek Blues’ and ‘Aurora’ redeem the album in some respects with its melodramatic attitude and gutsy kick, but they’re probably the only other songs on the album I’d imagine myself revisiting at any point, one being a cabaret belter and the other a shimmering sensual dance number. The piano/spoken word track ‘Reminders, Remind’ is a nice idea, but it layers the Tim Burton cuddle toy vibes on far too thick to work.
‘The Forecaster’ as a closing song aims for grandeur in its chamber music style and cinematic atmosphere, but feels stilted, dragging on for nearly seven minutes without really getting to the heart of the matter due to a triumph of style over substance.

I can imagine ‘Alterations’ going down well with those who like Tim Burton, Voltaire, Emile Autumn, and own a “keep calm and eat a cupcake” poster. For all its soaring ambitions in music and lyrics, it remains twee as hell, cutesy-spooky, repetitive, and ultimately unfulfilling.

★★★★★

Karie H-Halinski