There’s an unfortunate effect for a lot of electronic music: it ages. What might have seemed hip and cool once it first came out doesn’t anymore. Instead you’re left with something someone labored over that might now be quite stale. Here Stefan Schwander’s album is one such example.
Now it doesn’t completely fail. Songs like “Augustine” still sound surprisingly good 8 years on. Others like “Waiting for You” are partly ruined by those violin plucks, a feature never really lovely. Violin plucks ruin the melody, making it much cuter than it needed to be. Had some similar elements been excised from the album it might be sweeter. My request would be for the clicks to have been removed, as they reek of the time (remember cuts and clicks on Mille Plateaux? Yeah, I didn’t think so.)
Overall though, this isn’t terrible. Had Antonelli focused more on the bass side of things (which is admittedly a big draw of the music) it could have aged better. Nonetheless it is still a fairly likable album, even with its flaws.