Neutral Lies- A Deceptive Calm

Artist: Neutral Lies

CD title: A Deceptive Calm

Label: BOREDOMproduct

Genre: Synthpop

Website: https://www.neutrallies.online.fr

Reviewer: Steve Fearon

Date: 06/02/11

You Can Buy This Album here: https://www.neutrallies.online.fr/shop.php

'A Deceptive Calm' is the debut offering from French duo Neutral Lies, but these are no newcomers to electronic music, having released music under several different projects since the 1980s.

Neutral Lies have a very strong Depeche Mode influence, with a very reverb heavy sound to the vocals, and a very 80's sound to their rhythm section.Whether you view this as a positive or not will depend on your tastes, but personally I enjoy that side to their music, and the airy pads that sometimes make an appearance help to add some tasteful retro chic.

The songs are all heavily grounded in New wave and Synthpop, with very little excursion, using hooks and catchy vocal lines to create the kind of songs that get caught in your head for hours, and you could be forgiven for thinking we had slipped back to 1986 at times.

Unfortunately there isn't an awful lot to differentiate them from a lot of other synth pop acts both then and now...they do what they do well, but there isn't enough that is unique about them to really mark them as different from the crowd.

Neutral Lies are a pleasant listen, and no one that enjoys synthpop or new wave will have much to complain about when they listen to "A Deceptive Calm", but there just isn't anything here that isn't already available by other artists.

6/10 - Recommended Tracks "S.X Girls" and "Nostalgia"