You build it, we break it.....you sign it, we erase it... (Looking Glass - The Birthday Massacre)

Member Name: sparkymarky1973

Product:	Looking Glass - The Birthday Massacre
Date:	26/06/09 (30 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some great numbers and a good introduction to the band. Lead singer Chibi dresses as a schoolgirl!

Disadvantages: Red Stars is repeated too quickly, CD is too short...nothing new for fans other than a Tiffany cover

Recently a friend of mine, knowing I liked Goth Industrialist Emilie Autumn, suggested to me that I check out a group called The Birthday Massacre. I did, by looking them up on Myspace, and was suitably impressed. Impressed enough to go out and buy this album which is actually, I discovered later, an extended E.P- relatively short and consisting of only 9 tracks; one of those an instrumental and another a repeated remix of the same song. Still I cannot complain because, as an introduction to this band that has been around now for some time and gathered rather a cult, eclectic fan-base, this is rather a nice collection....

Looking Glass opens with the title track- a catchy number that is everything you expect from a Goth Industrialist band with heavy chords, powerful lyrics and lead singer, Chibi, giving it her all. The video for this song features the bizarrely creepy dolls head mask pictured on the cover of this CD and was one of the songs that convinced me to pick this E.P up in the first place. Though not my favourite track on this mini-album, it is still a very strong and powerful opening number that rerally gets you hooked into everything this band are about...

Falling Down, the next track, reminds me instantly of a cross between Placebo and a relatively forgotten group called Dubstar (whose biggest hit was Not So Manic Now) and again is very very catchy! As Chibi opens up the song, I could almost hear Brian Molko in her place and her style here in the opening lyrics is very similar to the sound he made famous with Placebo. In fact this is a very Placebo kind of song but that is no bad thing and this is easily my second favourite track on the E.P.

Track 3 is my absolute favourite overall of everything that is produced here~ Shiver opens with a pumping electro-style beat before breaking into a hard Industrial sound more associated with this genre. Again the lyrics are extremely addictive and quickly get under your skin. This was the song I soon found myself humming under my breath after listening to the CD a few times. This is probably the track that would convince me more than any of the others to buy a proper album by the band! Although difficult to describe exactly what the song is all about, it is nonetheless the strongest number featured here and is certainly the track I would listen to the most!

Red Stars comes next in a remix version that differs from the original I am told in that it has been made more trancey and a bit more mainstream. Not having heard the original version, I actually quite like this though it is far from what I would expect from Goth Industrialism and much more mellow than I perhaps would've liked to hear. Still it is a relatively decent track that provokes fond memories of the band Sneaker Pimps and their song Spin, Spin Sugar, though this has only the faintest of echoes of that number. Red Stars is followed by the instrumental I previously mentioned called Nowhere which is something of a nothing track in that it achieves nothing and leaves no lasting impression and this in turn is followed by another version of Red Stars. This is the weakest moment of the CD as, although both versions are pleasant enough, putting them so close together with only a short instrumental between almost makes this feel like one big track and, at just over 6 minutes, this second version of Stars does feel like it goes on a tad too long and almost out-stays its welcome like a friend who won't take the hint and just leave when the party's over. Still there is nothing unduly unlikeable here, it is just a bit too familiar having heard this track a very short time before. If this had come at the end of the E.P rather than so close to it's previous incarnation I might have had a better opinion!

Weekend comes next is another strange track that doesn't quite seem to fit with the image of Chibi's band. Again very electro-pop, I have no idea how the original sounds but this is by no means a track I would be bothered about if I didn't hear it again. Once more there are strong influences from Dubstar present which is no bad thing but this is just nowhere near as heavy or Industrialist as I would like it to be. It leads on to I Think We're Alone Now, yes the Tiffany cover recently also done by Girls Aloud, and this is another bizarre choice of song. If there is one song I would expect The Birthday Massacre to cover, this would not be it~ and that is no doubt why they have chosen it! I always liked this song, but then I did have a teenage crush on Tiffany (and Debbie Gibson who, according to recent photos I tracked down on the net, is now looking slightly rough!) though I would never admit that to any of my friends for fear of damaging what little street cred I might have once had! This is a great rocky version of this song that detracts nothing from the original and works far better than Girls Aloud's take and is a fitting end from this mixed bag of an E.P that certainly makes for good listening even if it is relatively short and has it's weak moments. As a climax, it leaves you wondering just what else this band could successfully cover and is ceretainly something a little bit unexpected. Seeing this on the back of the CD, I had convinced myself it couldn't possibly be the song I thought but I was wrong!

Apparently this E.P is not a brilliant example of what the band are normally about and I have read that all the songs featured here are available on their three other albums so for big fans, there is very little of anything new here that would persuade you to actually buy it! But for a newcomer to the band, I actually found this quite a good promotion and it would certainly encourage me to buy more from this group! I would love to hear more of what Chibi and her fellow band members are capable of and it would be great to hear the original, untouched versions of the tracks featured here! I also love the cover art and the dolls mask is very reminescent of one of my favourite ever movies, Terry Gilliam's Brazil! For anyone who has seen this, the doll's mask will have creepy implications and that is no doubt why the band have chosen it as the focus point for their cover and the video for their title song.

You can get this on Amazon for as little as £4.90 used though it costs a bit more new and for that price, you might be better searching out one of their three proper albums rather than this E.P which is basically a remix collection. Either way, this is a band I wil be looking out for in the future....if I could compare them to any ONE band, I would say if you like Garbage (missing out their dire third album) then you are most likely gonna like this...

Summary: Goth Industrialisit meets electro-pop with strong echoes of Garbage.