Unlimited Streaming
Listen to this album in high quality now on our apps
Start my trial period and start listening to this albumEnjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription
SubscribeEnjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription
Digital Download
Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.
Language available : english
The third time out for indie pop's dance-lite cover perverts has Dubstar refining their cotton-candy, melodic smacks with a higher sense of carbonated cheerfulness that should please fans not expecting all that much. The good news is that Steve Hillier and Chris Wilkie turn down the more string-heavy arrangements of old and a newborn sound of crunching guitars and rough beats certainly helps resuscitate the band from "poor man's St. Etienne" injuries. The bad news is that the band still sounds like they never stopped obsessing over the pop charts of 1985.
The opening triumvirate of "Take It," "I," and "The Self Same Thing" is a splendid return to form, full of escalating siren smirks and euphoric blasts of air. Yet the album quickly starts gasping for breath. Sarah Blackwood's overly coached voice takes center stage in a huge number of mid-tempo ballads that attempt to fiddle with pop star prancing and sexual come-ons with awful lyrics like, "I'm the one that you knew/Cos I'm no one/With a great set of moves/And I can move it with you." Worse, when the band tries to regain their opening rhythm, they sound like either a female-fronted, Stigmata-era EMF ("Arc of Fire") or Shampoo ("I'm Conscious of Myself"). To think Dubstar started their career covering the obscure end of the 4AD discography, too.
At any rate, Make It Better is half-cocked: with the energy and chart-aping bop of the best of indie perfectionists, but also with too much dead weight when it tries to actually say something. One can't even call this sugary indie dance anymore. For better or worse, Dubstar is now "Sweet & Low."
© Dean Carlson /TiVo
You are currently listening to samples.
Listen to over 100 million songs with an unlimited streaming plan.
Listen to this playlist and more than 100 million songs with our unlimited streaming plans.
From 12,49€/month
Mike 'Spike' Drake, Producer, Mixer - Steve Hillier, Composer, Producer, Remixer - Sarah Blackwood, Producer, Vocals - Dubstar, MainArtist - Chris Wilkie, Producer
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Mike 'Spike' Drake, Producer, Mixer, Engineer - Steve Hillier, Composer, Producer, Mixer, Remixer - Sarah Blackwood, Producer, Vocals - Dubstar, MainArtist - Chris Wilkie, Producer
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Mike 'Spike' Drake, Producer, Mixer - Steve Hillier, Composer, Producer, Mixer, Remixer - Sarah Blackwood, Producer, Vocals - Dubstar, MainArtist - Chris Wilkie, Producer
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Mike 'Spike' Drake, Producer, Mixer - Steve Hillier, Producer, Remixer - Sarah Blackwood, Producer, Vocals - Dubstar, MainArtist - Kirsty hawkshaw, Composer - Chris Wilkie, Producer
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Mike 'Spike' Drake, Producer, Mixer - Steve Hillier, Composer, Producer, Remixer - Sarah Blackwood, Producer, Vocals - Dubstar, MainArtist - Chris Wilkie, Composer, Producer
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Mike 'Spike' Drake, Producer, Mixer - Steve Hillier, Composer, Producer, Remixer - Sarah Blackwood, Composer, Producer, Vocals - Dubstar, MainArtist - Chris Wilkie, Composer, Producer
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Mike 'Spike' Drake, Producer, Mixer - Steve Hillier, Composer, Producer, Remixer - Sarah Blackwood, Producer, Vocals - Dubstar, MainArtist - Chris Wilkie, Producer
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Mike 'Spike' Drake, Producer, Mixer - Steve Hillier, Composer, Producer, Remixer - Sarah Blackwood, Producer, Vocals - Dubstar, Producer, MainArtist - Chris Wilkie, Composer, Producer
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Mike 'Spike' Drake, Producer, Mixer - Steve Hillier, Composer, Producer, Remixer - Sarah Blackwood, Producer, Vocals - Dubstar, MainArtist - Chris Wilkie, Composer, Producer
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Mike 'Spike' Drake, Producer, Mixer - Steve Hillier, Composer, Producer, Remixer - Sarah Blackwood, Producer, Vocals - Dubstar, MainArtist - Chris Wilkie, Producer
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Mike 'Spike' Drake, Producer, Mixer - Steve Hillier, Composer, Producer, Remixer - Sarah Blackwood, Producer, Vocals - Dubstar, MainArtist - Chris Wilkie, Composer, Producer
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Mike 'Spike' Drake, Producer, Mixer - Steve Hillier, Composer, Producer, Mixer, Remixer - Sarah Blackwood, Producer, Vocals - Dubstar, MainArtist - Chris Wilkie, Producer
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Mike 'Spike' Drake, Producer - Steve Hillier, Composer, Producer, Remixer - Sarah Blackwood, Producer, Vocals - Dubstar, MainArtist - Chris Wilkie, Producer - DJ Jurgen, Remixer
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Mike 'Spike' Drake, Producer - Steve Hillier, Composer, Producer, Remixer - Sarah Blackwood, Producer, Vocals - Dubstar, MainArtist - Chris Wilkie, Producer - DJ Jurgen, Remixer
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Mike 'Spike' Drake, Producer - Steve Hillier, Composer, Producer, Remixer - Sarah Blackwood, Producer, Vocals - Dubstar, MainArtist - Agent Sumo, Remixer - Chris Wilkie, Producer
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Mike 'Spike' Drake, Producer - Steve Hillier, Composer, Remixer - Dubstar, Producer, MainArtist
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Steve Hillier, Composer - Dubstar, Producer, MainArtist
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Steve Hillier, Composer - Dubstar, Producer, MainArtist - Chris Wilkie, Composer
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Steve Hillier, Composer - Dubstar, Producer, MainArtist - Chris Wilkie, Composer
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Steve Hillier, Composer - Dubstar, Producer, MainArtist
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Steve Hillier, Composer - Dubstar, Producer, MainArtist - Gary Numan, Performance, FeaturedArtist - Chris Wilkie, Composer
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Ian Broudie, Producer, Performance, FeaturedArtist - Steve Hillier, Composer - Dubstar, Producer, MainArtist - Dubstar Featuring Ian Broudie, Producer
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2000 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Albumbeschreibung
The third time out for indie pop's dance-lite cover perverts has Dubstar refining their cotton-candy, melodic smacks with a higher sense of carbonated cheerfulness that should please fans not expecting all that much. The good news is that Steve Hillier and Chris Wilkie turn down the more string-heavy arrangements of old and a newborn sound of crunching guitars and rough beats certainly helps resuscitate the band from "poor man's St. Etienne" injuries. The bad news is that the band still sounds like they never stopped obsessing over the pop charts of 1985.
The opening triumvirate of "Take It," "I," and "The Self Same Thing" is a splendid return to form, full of escalating siren smirks and euphoric blasts of air. Yet the album quickly starts gasping for breath. Sarah Blackwood's overly coached voice takes center stage in a huge number of mid-tempo ballads that attempt to fiddle with pop star prancing and sexual come-ons with awful lyrics like, "I'm the one that you knew/Cos I'm no one/With a great set of moves/And I can move it with you." Worse, when the band tries to regain their opening rhythm, they sound like either a female-fronted, Stigmata-era EMF ("Arc of Fire") or Shampoo ("I'm Conscious of Myself"). To think Dubstar started their career covering the obscure end of the 4AD discography, too.
At any rate, Make It Better is half-cocked: with the energy and chart-aping bop of the best of indie perfectionists, but also with too much dead weight when it tries to actually say something. One can't even call this sugary indie dance anymore. For better or worse, Dubstar is now "Sweet & Low."
© Dean Carlson /TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 22 track(s)
- Total length: 01:27:27
- Main artists: Dubstar
- Composer: Various Composers
- Label: Parlophone UK
- Genre: Pop/Rock Rock
© 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company ℗ 2007 Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Improve album information
Why buy on Qobuz...
-
Stream or download your music
Buy an album or an individual track. Or listen to our entire catalogue with our high-quality unlimited streaming subscriptions.
-
Zero DRM
The downloaded files belong to you, without any usage limit. You can download them as many times as you like.
-
Choose the format best suited for you
Download your purchases in a wide variety of formats (FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF...) depending on your needs.
-
Listen to your purchases on our apps
Download the Qobuz apps for smartphones, tablets and computers, and listen to your purchases wherever you go.