January 1, 1999

A Vision

Carson supported [a]Natalie Imbruglia[/a] on her recent UK tour; there is such a thing as making a journalist's life too easy....

3 / 10 Carson supported Natalie Imbruglia on her recent UK tour; there is such a thing as making a journalist's life too easy. When you discover that in addition to that singular indignity they were forced to downgrade their name from Jaguar after a Mexican mariachi band called Los Jaguaros complained, the prospect of ripping the guts out of another mediocre corporate indie LP seems a lot less appealing. What with the monolithic limpness of Carson's debut LP, you almost feel sorry for the poor souls.

'A Vision' sounds like it was conceived at a board meeting, designed by computer and then blow-dried into abstraction in the meek desire to have Zok Ball call it "rilly brilliant" on the radio. A hybrid of the Longpigs and Crowded House without the former's tremulous angularity or the latter's more tangible gift for writing memorable tunes, a sense of vague directionless malaise emanates from every digitally encoded groove. Even on singles 'I Quit' and 'Up And Down' there's no anger, no moments of clarity and, you could almost persuade yourself, nothing approaching human feeling at all.

'A Vision' perhaps, but at best, a nightmarish 3 D-Vision.