Six By Seven Closer You Get CD - Import

The growling, slightly arty power of the English quintet evident on its debut took on a more studio-centric guise for the followup, and while the band later considered it a bit overproduced, The Closer You Get is still an underrated monster of an album. A great line in song titles certainly doesn't hurt -- "England and a Broken Radio," "My Life Is an Accident," and the best of the bunch, "Sawn Off Metallica T-Shirt" -- but if that were all then the reason for listening would be slim. As it is, the cranked up feedback and aiming-for-the-epic arrangements, nicely offset both by Chris Olley's sometimes strangled vocals and the sometimes rushed clatter of the band, finds a fairly solid balance throughout. Sometimes one can sense how Six by Seven could, with less inspiration, have been a more run-of-the-mill U.K. indie band, but there's enough depth, range, and beauty to help them avoid that fate many times over. In ways the album doesn't fully kick in until "Ten Places to Die," with its moody guitar part matched by Olley's high croon and Chris Davis' restless drumming, setting an air of nervous, building anticipation that gets more tightly wound as it goes. After that it's one peak to another, from "New Year" and its dazed waltz-time verses leading into marvelous, soaring but sad choruses to the rampaging chaos of "Slab Square" and "England and a Broken Radio"'s calm, haunted pace. "My Life Is an Accident" also demonstrates the band's mastery at build and release performances to excellent effect. "One Easy Ship Away" is almost the band's equivalent of a power ballad, but definitely on its own terms, squeals and drones of feedback floating through the mix as piano and Olley's hurt vocals step to the fore. ~ Ned Raggett

2nd Full Length;Britpop

Recorded at Square Centre Studios & The Batcave, Nottingham, England.

Six By Seven: Chris Olley (vocals, guitar); Sam Hempton (guitar); James Flower (keyboards); Paul Douglas (bass); Chris Davis (drums).

Producers: Ric Peet, Six By Seven, John Leckie.

Entertainment Weekly (4/21/00, p.79) - "...These UK lads come on like a mad health teacher....But just when you think they're all about cathartic, if juvenile, guitar rock, they unleash the lovely 'Ten Places To Die'. Here's to schizophonia." - Rating: B+
Q (5/00, p.118) - 3 stars out of 5 - "A hit and mix affair, when THE CLOSER YOU GET is good, it's very good indeed....best appreciated with a drink and a smoke."
Magnet (6-7/00, pp.89-90) - "...Radiates white-knuckled guitar rock with majestic, Radiohead-like craftsmanship....burning with a smoldering intensity....This is a group serious about its rock'n'roll....a stunning document of a band coming into its own..."
CMJ (4/17/00, p.3) - "...A virtual warzone of guitar shrapnel, and it explodes with titanic intensity."
Melody Maker (3/28/00, pp.48-9) - 4.5 stars out of 5 - "...Hairy-toothed, bulging-eyed, blood-under-fingernails sibling turned savage from being locked in the attic too long....Best album of the year so far by a joy-driven mile..."
Mojo (Publisher) (4/00, p.93) - "...Proves irrefutably that they have not only the chops, but the 3 veg and gravy, too....Few bands now have the courage to make noise as meaningful as this; it's like warming your heart against a limited nuclear strike."
NME (Magazine) (12/30/00, p.78) - Ranked #24 in NME's "Top 50 Albums Of The Year".
NME (Magazine) (3/18/00, p.35) - 9 out of 10 - "...an emo-logical cataclysm of Exxon Valdez proportions....the filth and the fury take centre stage....CLOSER is a fist-in-the-air triumph, a beautifully realised shot of vitrol to the mainstream's limpid veins, an amped-up refusal to acquiesce..."