Early Sneaker Pimps, while Kelli Ali was their lead singer. Psychedelic but too rough-edged to be shoe-gazer. Sounds a bit like if you took Garbage and poured a little Portishead on top. Indeed, Portishead is why Sneaker Pimps got rid of Kelli Ali, they decided that the British trip-hop-band-with-girl-singer thing was getting a bit too... stereotyped.
-- Badtux the Music Penguin
Wow, I hadn't heard that mix before, and I really like it. I've enjoyed Sneaker Pimps' later albums, don't get me wrong, but I loved Kelli Ali's voice. I like "Becoming X" more than any of their others. And her solo work isn't bad, but it's not as memorable to me as her album with SP's.
ReplyDeleteI love Postmodern Sleaze, and it was the extended video of that song that brought the group to my attention.
Is it my imagination, or does she sound like Pat Banatar with a splash of Crissie Hynde?
ReplyDeleteCheers!
JzB the Back to Ohio trombonist
Not your imagination, Jazz. Very "classic rock" type female vocalist being dropped into a dream-pop sort of song. Nice disjunction of effects there. I like.
ReplyDeleteHmm, for some reason you don't fit my image of a Sneaker Pimps fan, Lockwood. Kelli Ali's voice is one of those things that goes well with some songs and not others, but served well to give some edge to the Pimps' otherwise soupy sound on that first album. As for her solo work, she clearly sucks as a lyricist and songwriter, I've been unimpressed.
- Badtux the Music Penguin
What can I say... I'm a sucker for the female voice. I listened to one of her solo albums a couple of times- perhaps her only one, I don't know. But I never went back and listened to it again. Like I said, unmemorable.
ReplyDelete