Lene Lovich - March

SHADOWS AND DUST....a new Lene cd for 2005!!

Lene is back! And stronger than ever! Lene has released a new cd on the stereosociety web page run by Mike Thorne, the 80's producer. It's a startling come back....Lene is in top form just as if she never left! It honestly took me a few listens to like this cd...but it has grown on me, and in my honest opinion, it is Lene's best, right next to FLEX. Lene proves she is Queen of the fun gothic dance songs.

The cd is packed with sounds...voices echoing the the background...calls and shrieks, la la la's and sonic blasts of synth. Les Chappel's deep baritone echoes in places, and adds a dark atmosphere to the music. Lene's voice has never sounded better. It's full and rich as she sings, calls, speaks and shrieks through this 10 song set. I wish it had been a longer cd!

The cd begins with "Craze" a snewy, plucky song, with Lene's rich alto singing against the music...not with it...and she uses her voice as a squealing escalating trill up and down as a hook. A new, funky lene has been born! Possibly one of the best songs she has ever done!!!!

Lene touches darkwave with the passionate "Remember"....and once again her voice is rich and full...and lonely...

She then hits a fast pace with "Gothica"....a driving, guitar powered song....with her and les shouting "Goth-ic-ca!!!" as the hook. It's a fun, spooky song...with echoing voices and odd sounds popping in and out of the mix....this song should be the single. Les is also in top vocal form providing a deep croaking buried into the mix. It sounds like he is chanting "ooga shocka ah ooga shocka ah"

The song "The Insect Eater" is a brilliant masterpiece about Renfield, the crazed slave of Dracula. It's cartoony, and fun...and when Dracula speaks to Renfield, the production is top-notch, with Lene and Les's altered voices speaking...it's brilliant! Lene sings "earwigs in my fridge at midnight put me in a dancing mood" then Les screams "Earwigs!!!"

The cartoony, gothic fun contiues on "The Wicked Witch". You'll find yourself singing along to the chorus. It's a cross between the Wicked Witch of the West and horror movie witchcraft with blaring synth and guitar...and more voices and calling in the background. A memorable line "I'll do more than make you cry!"

This is a deep cd. the production is some of the best you will ever hear. It's thick, and sonic...and the vocals come at you from all directions, as screams, yodels, whispers, croaking, singing, chanting...and it all blends together into one startling masterpiece.

December 5, 2005

Lene's last 80's effort.....

Having bought her recent BEST OF this fall,(she and her band
were very under-appreciated!)Many wild really cool songs stylings. I checked this one
out(MARCH) and its not bad. Lots of her trademark vocals diving and swooping here
and there. The production is somewhat different from her earlier
80's work, lots of influences going on,her dreamscape songs
can be dark, I hear the crisp production the CARS gave us, I even hear some Ian McColloch, traces of NEW ORDER some 80's overblown rock guitars(but it works for the most part on these
tunes) but its Lene's vision that moves these songs, some are
better than others but as a whole not bad. Some might find these
dated and lost in the 80's but that period had some of the most
interesting music I've heard over the past 30 years. November 24, 2004

I liked it!

I'm a long time fan of Lene Lovich, and I found this cd by chance when looking for another copy of 'No Man's Land'. I got this cd back in 2000 I believe. I read somewhere that Lene just hated the way they produced 'No Man's Land', and that that was her least favorite album because of it. If you've heard both versions of "Special Star", the original, and the one on 'No Man's Land', you'll see exactly what the fuss is. I must be weird though, because I love both versions!

This cd has definitely been produced, similar to (though perhaps not quite so much as), 'No Man's Land'. So if that's an issue for you, you might not like it.The songs run the gamut of Lene's styles, from the silly, to the seriously political, love songs to a club danceable tune. The songs are not really dated, per se...but they do have that trademark LL '80s style. Four years after buying the cd, I still listen to it regularly.

As a long time LL fan, I highly recommend it. It is not like 'Stateless', though. January 26, 2004

In the realm of good...

Actually, if you were to listen to this CD without further knowledge of Lene it would either be a great CD or just awful. So you see where I'm in the middle. First, I would like to say this is a fine written album. I've always loved her phasing and vocal style. I will say on this CD she is in a little different space. Whether she is meaning all this- she is in a more commerical base here(maybe record company BS) Without that, I love the writing on this CD, She is at an emotional level that someone that is from space(she has said she is) can identify with. All that said, I love "Life" (great vocal)probabably the one true non produced track on the CD. I guess when I think of my over all problem with the disk is that I find myself in the course of the day humming the melodies to these songs. Which is good. However, the production(over) is what makes me hate this CD. I would think Lene would too. So late 80's that it just sucks. These songs have a passion and a will that no one will ever hear through the desperate beat of the end of new wave. God, why did they do that to these good songs? Of course, I do have to add that why someone{Lene) looking soooo stand offish has so many song about love?(just a queston). Anyway, ten+ we miss her. I heard she is always thinking of her "next" record. I hope she listens to Flex or Statless before going in the studio. November 6, 2003

Is Good If You Love the Lovich...And We Do, Don't We?

It's funny, but in listening to March I've pretty much run the gamut of all the previous reviews, beginning with the less-favorable ones. When I first put this on, I thought it was awful. I had just come from Flex...Plus and Stateless...Plus which are both masterpieces and had never heard March when it first came out in 1989. Yet the Lovich-Chappell team are intact and as responsible for March as the previous albums so what you find is that after first dismissing the stuff as nowhere near Flex or Stateless you suddenly find yourself listening through and suddenly finding gems like "Life" and "Wonderland" and then gradually discovering "Make Believe" and "Vertigo" and the extended remix of "Wonderland" and so on. Then you realize "Dah-yum" this whole album's pretty good!!! And it is. Thing is that it does reflect very much a thick '80's disco sensibility as opposed to the earlier sparseness of Lovich's work. So it kind of reflects the defects of its late-'80s era, which lie in overproduction. But it is still fun, upbeat and it retains the most important thing about Lovich's lyrics: her seminal message of creativity and optimism. If you are fan of Lovich (and would you actually be reading this if you weren't???) then the CD is definitely a must-have. After all, a so-so Lovich is pretty much worth any first rate work by anybody else. Not every album can be a masterpiece, and this one isn't in relation to the grand achievements of the earlier Lovich-Chappel collaborations, but it is a great listen. April 16, 2001

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