SEMI GLOSS
Semi Gloss (Dirt)
Teenie EP (Dirt)
At their best, New York's Semi Gloss make some of the loveliest pop music I've heard in years. They manage the alchemy of turning nice little jangly pop ballads into something else entirely?sensuous, smoky, debonair, yet strangely uplifting. Pensiveness that makes you smile, or even remember lost love fondly. Verona Wiesendanger has a voice as purely beautiful and heavenly as, well, Heavenly, but without the cutesiness. And talk about suave?they're as likely to indulge in a fab vibraphone solo than anything more pedestrian. So, when they do their slow, sexy thing, I am in love.

Alas, the story doesn't end there. Guitarist Jordy Mokriski insists on singing three songs (one on the full-length, one on the EP), which is almost unforgivable. What I wouldn't give for an entire Semi Gloss CD without any Jordy singing! His voice sounds exactly like a five year old boy doing a bad impression of Moe Tucker; each of the songs he's on is basically an unfunny "novelty" song; not only are they not funny, but they ruin the mood of the rest of their work. Oh, and as long as I'm complaining, their faster numbers are tuneful enough, but feel generic and unexciting compared to the majority of the work, and the lyrics tend to the trite and obvious insights on love and loss. That's all basically forgivable, if only because "latenight stroll" and "free" and "sans expliquer" are so damn beautiful. Overall, with a few down spots, the full-length is a delight; the EP duplicates two songs from the album and has a Jordy song, but has three wonderful exclusive tracks. (Philip Levie)
 

[Editors Note: To each his own opinion on the merits of Jordy's singing.]