Morcheeba - Blood Like Lemonade Review

Morcheeba may have continued to be in existence in some form since its formation in the mid-1990s, but its sound will almost certainly be forever associated with that decade. Before the Time-dubbed “Decade From Hell”, Morcheeba’s blend of lush, loungy trip-hop perfectly captured the carefree, decadent dot-com era that was the mid-‘90s. Even if that decade contained its share of wars and economic misery, it seemed far easier to evade those problems, and Morcheeba was the soundtrack of escape. The group’s first two albums, Who Can You Trust? (1996) and Big Calm (1998), had an irresistible formula: deliver some jazzy hip-hop style beats and lay them over Skye Edwards’ vocals, which were the perfect mix of frigid cool and warm soul.


In 2003, Edwards left Morcheeba. Brothers Ross and Paul Godfrey continued, but the group’s signature voice was gone. Seven years later (according to a post by Edwards on her MySpace page), the three had dinner, got tipsy, and decided to reform. A scant four months later, Morcheeba’s new album Blood Like Lemonade is already available for download or in stores (in the UK).


For about four songs on Blood Like Lemonade, it sounds like 1998 all over again in a good way. The opening track, “Crimson”, is the perfect vehicle to welcome Edwards back into the fold. Her ached delivery of the chorus “hellbound hopeless for you” will linger in a listener’s ears long after the album ends. It’s the type of track that makes you question whether you downloaded the album correctly, as the slow burning nature of the song seems more at home at an album’s midway point....full text Blood Like Lemonade is you suppose proof that above all, time's a healer. During Morcheeba's commercial peak in the late nineties their blend of drowsy hip-hop and warped lounge shifted units by the million and made them the blunted kings of many a festival. Despite the overwhelming peace and love vibe of their music however things were far from cool between the band's trio of members, brothers Ross and Paul Godfrey and the iconic singer Skye Edwards, resulting in the latter's exit nearly a decade ago.


The exact reasons for her departure remain largely unspoken. But having been replaced by a revolving cast of vocalists on the band's subsequent albums - including a clutch of previously unknowns recruited from MySpace on the their last outing Dive Deep - the hatchet it would seem has been buried, signalled by an overdue return brokered by the group's management team....full text Reunited again with original vocalist Skye Edwards, Morcheeba's Paul and Ross Godfrey have managed to re-locate the band's classic trip-hop chill-out vibe without sacrificing the growing eclecticism of albums like Charango and Dive Deep.


Thus are the oozing down-tempo grooves laced together with delicate threads of slide guitar, sitar, thumb-piano and harmonica, with folk and country flavours spicing "I Am the Spring". Meanwhile, Skye's gently soulful delivery brings to life a series of quirky vignettes, ranging from the vampiric bounty-hunter of the title-track, exacting gory revenge on villains, through the astronaut ruminations of "Even Though" and the Viking explorers of "Beat of the Drum", to the middle-class murder of "Recipe for Disaster",...full text