Artist: Tide
Label: CPZ Records
Release: 2009
Duration: 44: 22
Rating: 4/5
Tide’s third studio album, “Regeration,” already hints with its title that the band went through a period of transformation while making it. The “survivors” of this story came out of it richer for the new experiences and insights, you might even say more mature. The alternative rock Tide have been developing has always had one toe pointed in a direction that could open the door to a wider commercial breakthrough. In Slovenia the band has enjoyed great promotion all along, and it’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t actually know them. Of course, we’re talking about the target audience here, meaning the 14 – 25 age bracket.
The first thing “Regeneration” offers is nothing new. The band is still writing simply built alt rock tunes. With just the right pinch of easy accessibility for the listener, in the form of trivially constructed lead melodies, plus a dash of brusque rocker arrogance that delivers the necessary touch of rebellious stubbornness. So they keep biting in the same direction. “Regeneration” does bring one key element that lifts all of this to a high level of quality: phenomenal production. The simple alternative rock Tide cultivate needs a solid backbone in convincing production.
It emphasizes an extremely voluminous, lower-tuned framework of bass lines, over which colorful collages built from trivial guitar-phrase tricks, minimal touches of keyboard spice and sampled programming loops float in contrast. Bullseye! The production strikes an excellently balanced arrangement of the building blocks of the music, sets them off against each other and creates the depth the songs need, a successfully built, three-dimensional soundscape.
And the music? As a third album, “Regeneration” is an extremely mature creation, made in a controlled way, with a clearly worked-out vision and strict focus. This is felt more than ever this time. The head of the band remains singer and guitarist Kevin Koradin, who, whatever went on behind the scenes during the making of the album, has perhaps realized his ideas in the easiest way yet, easier than in the past. Why this conclusion? Because the energy of all the songs is remarkably similar. There are no particular compositional detours, nor atmospheric ones. The album is compact, and there’s not a moment on it that could “derail” the undemanding listener (read: Tide’s target audience) and so cause possible “damage” to their cerebral cortex.
This time around, not just on individual songs but across the whole record, Tide bring in a moment of nostalgia, a retro-oriented principle. Into the music of “Regeneration” they add findings of dark wave, or post-punk from the second half of the eighties. If I said these were touches of early-eighties new wave, I’d be exaggerating, but some of the musical content of bands like Sisters Of Mercy and old U2, which “Regeneration” leans on, isn’t entirely out of place either.
The first track, which opens the album and is named after it, carries a dance rhythmic pattern. Fashionable! Definitely. And that pop element holds across the entire running time of the new record. If Mando Diao can do it, why not Tide? Soon the song dons the attributes of the third paragraph of this review. Simple and punchy. A very important element is Kevin’s vocal, which adds that dark feel to the songs. A shift into higher gear with Waste No Time carries the album onward on the same impulses. A pop rhythm bed with an obscurely alternative approach and a pleasing contrast between verse and melodically punchy chorus doesn’t let up in the follow-up Best Friend either. The song Adieu, fourth on the album, is the most nicely put together within this album’s algorithm, in terms of clean lines and free-flowing fluidity in the “verse-chorus” contrast. I’d call it the song that’s closest to radio frequencies. This is a song the band should seriously consider releasing as a single, backed by real marketing support, which would help the band, especially with this song, get “Regeneration” recognized around the planet.
The new Tide, for new times! A superbly optimized album in terms of delivering its content in a clear and direct way. It carries polish. It’s more commercially aimed than any previous Tide album, but at the same time it signals that there are quality musicians and co-creators of ideas behind it, offering real music too, which is far from leaving the listener high and dry. The ideas and melodies are simple, with a sharply measured production design and high motif compatibility, and they come across as mature, relaxing, concise. The harmony of the necessary touch of rock dynamite and the programmed cosmetics used on the album work together consistently in their message, like a perfect couple.
Even though this is a quickly accessible album, completely undemanding for the listener, perhaps 12 songs weren’t even strictly necessary on it. As said, they stick to a clear template and don’t deviate much from it. Despite that template, though, the band manages to capitalize on the typical Tide levers in an always interesting (for the band, typical) figure that doesn’t let a nasty feeling of repetitiveness creep in. In that sense the calm song Let Me Sleep is an extremely welcome bit of variety in the middle of the album, with which Tide successfully keep their hard-earned poker of aces from the first half of the record, and the cheekiness on the album then grows again afterwards, especially with the nifty combination of modern principles and rock n’ roll directness in a song like Love Train. All The Things also hits the marks of a potential hit song. The languid So Lonely is an example that Slovenian “sure-thing” band Dan D could follow if they started aiming abroad. This song departs slightly from the rest of the material, as it has a bluesy, even soul touch in Kevin’s vocal lines, and it’s accompanied by the well-tested “clapping beat” trick recipe that keeps the album’s pop flavor. Even the album’s closer, the personal, confessional Don’t Lose Your Mind, is thrilling.
“Regeneration” is an album of the band’s mature development and upgrade, one that can bring the band a breakthrough and wider recognition beyond Slovenian borders. It’s a mature indie rock album, and with “Regeneration” Tide can declare themselves the first real indie rock band coming out of Slovenia. With “Regeneration” Tide deliver something exceptional by Slovenian standards. It’s also an album that offers a healthy yardstick for what Slovenian pop rock mainstream should be, and at the same time it gives the band all the solid levers to reach its desired goal. That is worldwide recognition. I can say this is an excellent indie rock album, with the right, balanced measure of pop sweetness combined with rock grit, which Tide have so far showcased most effectively in their career.
Two more remarks. The album fell victim to a printing gremlin, and the back of the CD has the year ”2005″ printed instead of “2009”. I should also mention that the Tide lineup isn’t credited anywhere in the booklet, even though it’s clear from the pictures that it’s a quartet. Why that decision, ask Tide, but I assume it’s simply down to the fact that the main driving engine of the lineup is Kevin Koradin, and he probably put in a full 100% of the energy himself, including into the creation of the new songs and the new album.
Lineup
Kevin Koradin – vocals, guitar, keyboards, programmed samples
GUEST MUSICIANS
Clifford Goilo – drum programming
Renee Kuhlmann – drums
Matthijs Lievaart – violin on track no. 12
Production
Kevin Koradin & Clifford Goilo
Track List
1. Regeneration
2. Waste No Time
3. Best Friend
4. Adieu
5. Reptiles
6. You
7. Let Me Sleep
8. To Be Your Lover
9. All The Things
10. Love Train
11. So Lonely
12. Don’t Lose Your Mind
