Cranes Live In Italy CD

Combining two minor releases -- a live album and a remix EP -- Live in Italy & Submarine is a value-for-money purchase for fans that more casual listeners can bypass without terribly much regret. Cranes' ability to re-create their studio sound live is quite impressive for a band whose sonic attributes (besides Alison Shaw's startlingly wispy babytalk vocals) sound on record like they're the results of much Cocteau Twins-style effects and processing, but that unfortunately means that when one gets right down to it, Live in Italy is basically a live album that's more or less indistinguishable from the studio records. Submarine is a nine-track remix EP with four mixes each of the two singles from Cranes' comeback album Future Songs, "Submarine" and "Don't Wake Me Up," along with one mellow down-tempo version of "Driving in the Sun" from the same album. The mixes vary only slightly in mood and arrangement, and the collection as a whole is strictly for completists. ~ Stewart Mason

Despite this album's title, it was actually recorded all across Europe and the United Kingdom, in Pordenone, Rome, Ancona, Amsterdam, Vienna and the Cranes' home base of Portsmouth during their 2002 tour. Live albums usually disappoint for one of two reasons: either the band sounds nothing like it does in the studio (rich production is replaced by thin live arrangements and dodgier singing) or the band sounds exactly like it does in the studio, making you wonder why you spent the fifteen bucks on an album that sounds just like all the other ones you've already spent fifteen bucks on. Fans of the Cranes, though, should be perfectly happy with Live in Italy, because it splits the difference nicely between those two tendencies and showcases the ethereal instrumental sound and almost creepily girlish voice of singer Alison Shaw to such fine effect. The Cranes sound is one that adapts very nicely to the limitations of live instrumentation -- Jim Shaw's guitars are soft and spare, as is Alison Shaw's voice, and the touring sidemen offer just enough wispy texture to keep things from floating away entirely. The result, especially nice on songs like "Cloudless" and the slightly more muscular "Adrift," is both moody and gently exalted, sort of like a cross between Brian Eno and the Cocteau Twins. Recommended. ~ Rick Anderson

Recorded live in Italy, 2002.

Personnel: Alison Shaw (vocals, guitar); Paul Smith (guitar, keyboards); Jim Shaw (guitar); Jon Callender (drums).

Audio Mixer: Jim Shaw .

Recording information: Ancona Amsterdam, Vienna, Austria (10/2002); Pordenone, Rome, Italy (10/2002); Portsmouth, Rhode Island (10/2002).

Photographers: Oliver Blankenheim; Marco Maas; Mike Dare; Marco Calderisi; Jamie Dare; Cuahatemoc Keer; Lyse Tranzeat.

Cranes: Ali Shaw (vocals, guitar); Paul Smith (guitar, keyboards); Jim Shaw (guitar); Ben Baxter (bass); John Callender (drums).

Uncut (9/03, p.100) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Cranes continue their single-minded, 13-year-long quest for those resolutely uncommercial, abstractly beautiful and inexplicably affecting chords, patterns and sighs they do so splendidly..."