The Apples in Stereo Albums (6)
'Velocity of Sound'
Release Date 10/7/2002
Tracks 11
Label Cooking Vinyl
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What The Critics Say
Velocity of Sound lives up to its title. The album hurries past, a flurry of energetic beats and nasal vocals that suggest the Chipmunks on a caffeine buzz. Each song is tight and compressed; no superfluous notes slop out, and even the guitar solos seem whittled down to the minimum. With two new members in the band, the core of the Apples in Stereo remains Robert Schneider, whose lyrics possess a guileless charm. ("Your friends hate my guts," he cheerfully announces at the top of "That's Something I Do.") Even when promising that he has a dagger in his hand, on "Do You Understand?," the impact is earnest and innocent, like a kid hustling candy on Halloween. Retro touches lighten the weight of the snarling guitars, with loopy organ doodles on "Better Days" and a harmonic counterpoint on "Baroque" that harks all the way back to Harpers Bizarre. The result throughout Velocity of Sound is an impression of the Apples in Stereo as introductory ironists, non-threatening to kids and parents, accessible and enjoyable to all. ~ Robert L. Doerschuk, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
SpinART released Live in Chicago by the Apples in Stereo exclusively through EMusic in 2001. The Denver-based power pop group races through a nearly 30-minute set, playing fan favorites like "Ruby," "Seems So," and "Go!" Also included is a raucous version of the Beach Boys' "Heroes and Villians" from their album Smiley Smile. Singer Robert Schneider commented that Live in Chicago is a rare recording for the band: "You can actually hear the vocals very well over the noise. This is the first time one of our live recordings accomplished this." Live in Chicago is a high-energy, high-volume live set of great power pop at its most lo-fi. A fun, casual set that should be popular with fans. Not the best place to start for new fans. They should check out Discovery of a World Inside the Moone or Fun Trick Noisemaker first. ~ JT Griffith, All Music Guide
'The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone'
Release Date 4/18/2000
Tracks 12
Label Spinart
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What The Critics Say
The Apples in Stereo's third full-length album is a return to their early-'60s Beatlesque sound -- as opposed to the experimental, late-'60s Beatles trip on Her Wallpaper Reverie. This doesn't mean that The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone is a letdown full of derivative, overdone material -- the Apples have further fine-tuned their sunny sound and remain defiantly jubilant on songs like "I Can't Believe," "The Rainbow," "All Right/Not Quite," "20 Cases Suggestive Of...," and "Go." The band relies on more backup vocals -- as well as horns, beefed-up guitar, squiggly keyboards, and handclaps -- which only add to the album's depth. Drummer Hilarie Sidney's stratospheric "20 Cases Suggestive Of...," a rollicking, melodic number that is equal parts melancholy and exuberance, is one of the best tracks on the album. Simplistic lyrics like "She don't like the way you look so she treats you like a crook" (from "Go") are contrasted with more poignant lines like "Once I cut my hand but the wound was not part of me/Now I'm a man there's a wound at the heart of me" (from "Stream Running Over") -- and show that the band is turning toward more introspective ideas than they have on previous efforts. Not every song on The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone is an uptempo number: "Submarine Dream," "What Happened Then," "Stay Gold," and "The Afternoon" are somewhat cerebral and subdued tracks, and are well done even if they're not as immediately accessible as the other songs. Robert Schneider's lyrics are more emotional and personal here than on earlier releases, and the added intimacy, as well as the musical layers, make The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone an intricate, poignant lunar trip. ~ Gina Boldman, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
New Magnetic Wonder, the Apples in Stereo's return after a five-year hiatus, is one of their best records in a career made up of consistently fine recordings. Anyone expecting a return to the experimental, lo-fi wizardry of their early albums may feel let down by New Magnetic Wonder, but on the other hand, anyone fearing a return to the bland stripped-down and noisy sound of Velocity of Sound need not worry. What they have delivered instead is a crisply recorded set of bouncing rockers, sweetly strummed ballads, and vaguely trippy mid-tempo tracks that are full of hooks, melodies, and goofy fun. Over a base of solidly rocking bass, guitar, and drums (as well as Robert Schneider's reliably chirpy vocals), the band and their cohorts (the credits read like an E6 who's who, including Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Bill Doss and W. Cullen Hart of the Olivia Tremor Control, and John Fernandes, who has played clarinet with just about all the E6 bands) create a rich soundscape of Mellotron, backing vocals, percussion, and vintage keyboards that envelops the record in a warm and lush haze at times and fills it with sunshine at others. Even more than previous Apples releases, it's a record that won't win any points for being profound or meaningful. Tracks like "Can You Feel It?" or "Energy" are breezy to the point of invisible, but if they don't get you singing along like a fool right away, you've probably come to the wrong party and should go find a Bright Eyes record instead. The more sedate tunes that dominate the second half of the record, like the yearning and psychedelic "Open Eyes" or the melancholy "Radiation," give the album some balance (and in the Mellotron-soaked epic "Beautiful Machine, Pts. 3-4," one of the record's finest moments), but it's the charming fluff like "Same Old Drag" and "Play Tough" that wins the day in the end. The Apples' successful return to the indie scene should be hailed with a hearty embrace (and a tear for the departure of drummer Hilarie Sidney, whose two contributions to the record, "Sundial Song" and "Sunday Sounds," are quite nice) for anyone who likes their pop silly but intelligently played and arranged. Welcome back, Apples! ~ Tim Sendra, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The second full-length album by the Apples in Stereo isn't as surprising as their debut, 1995's Fun Trick Noisemaker, but it doesn't sound like simply more of the same. Graced with a larger budget and access to a fully equipped 24-track recording studio for the first time, the group (particularly singer/songwriter/producer Robert Schneider) is working with a much larger canvas now, and it shows. The sound of this album is just remarkable, as layered as any of Jeff Lynne's mid-'70s Electric Light Orchestra albums, but with a freshness and energy that keeps things from merely sounding slick. Schneider explores his fascination with Smile-era Brian Wilson on atmospheric linking tracks like "The Silvery Light of a Dream" and the album's wordless coda, giving the record a sonic unity arguably missing from the all-over-the-map Fun Trick Noisemaker. The one flaw is that the songwriting is not quite up to the consistency of the debut; while songs like "You Said That Last Night," "Seems So," and especially "Shine a Light" are exemplary, there are a couple of tracks that have a whiff of filler about them. Aside from that, Tone Soul Evolution is a fine follow-up. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
'Fun Trick Noisemaker'
Release Date 5/2/1995
Tracks 13
Label spinART/Elephant 6
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
One of the defining albums of the mid-'90s indie scene, the Apples in Stereo's full-length debut is one of those records that marks a sea change in musical attitudes, akin to Mudhoney's "Touch Me I'm Sick" or Pavement's early singles. Besides being the breakthrough release of the Elephant 6 collective, which alone is responsible for many of the better albums of the decade, Fun Trick Noisemaker is the album that defines the post-grunge indie pop shift from sullen negativity into a kind of cockeyed, giddy optimism, and is also among the handful of albums that turned Brian Wilson, Arthur Lee, and Burt Bacharach into cool names to drop at the record store. The album opens with a plundered bit of sonic ephemera from an old stereo-effects demonstration record that plunges directly into the manic throb of "Tidal Wave," where Hilarie Sidney's thudding drums sound like "I Want Candy" on speed and Robert Schneider's goofy mixed-metaphor lyrics and boyish vocals blend with sci-fi vintage synth whooshes and a killer fuzz-guitar riff out of the Fillmore West's heyday. From that breathless start, the album skips blithely from high point to high point, like the sugar-sweet bubblegum melody and "la la la" harmonies of "Glowworm" and the hyperspeed rush of the Buzzcocks-meet-the Banana Splits "Dots 1-2-3." Childlike songs like Sidney's lone vocal showcase, "Winter Must Be Cold," add a charmingly naïve sensibility to what could otherwise be a collection of ideas plundered from impossibly hip record collections. Several years' worth of albums covering the same territory might have dulled the album's freshness just a touch, and the group's technical competence would grow with each successive album, but Fun Trick Noisemaker is a minor masterpiece. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
