Chicane – Thousand Mile Stare

This is a really great album, first time I've listened to it, kinda lost the way with Chicane after Giants which I wasn't that into. I put this on straight after Sigur Ros's new album, and thought I'd somehow been given one of their records by accident. This harks back to early Chicane sounds, fluid rolling from one sound to the next, dreamy soundscapes, very laid back and sumptuous, I like it.

Same pressing quality as MOV's recent issues of Behind the Sun and Giants, so it sounds absolutely excellent. The discs looks quite different to the mock-up images; the real thing is best described as a purple-ish dirty gold colour, which does look rather cool as it has a slight glitter effect. The "leather laminate finish" (not actually leather) for the sleeve looks and feels *amazing*. The only downside is the cover art itself being pretty low resolution (except for the text), but I suppose they couldn't just make a sub-par image look decent at a much larger size; it didn't look great at CD booklet size.
MOV are knocking it out of the park with these Chicane pressings. Definitely a must-have if you're a Chicane fan with a turntable!

PS. MOV pressings of Far from the Maddening Crowds, and The Place You Can't The Place You Can't Forget are up for pre-order now I've noticed!

It's worth noting that that included 'USB cassette' (a USB stick in the shape of a music cassette) doesn't actually contain the demo tracks listed, but rather launches an app that would enable you to stream and the tracks from the Internet. Needless to say, the links are long obsolete and don't work any more.

What a crapshoot this boxset was. Overpriced piece of garbage and to make matters worse he released the album standalone months later with 3 more songs on it. Pro move.

Effectively Chicane trying to do a Sigur Rós record.

While generally the idea of Nick finally doing a more laidback, atmospheric album again is something I was wanting for some time, sadly what we have here doesn't really sound like Chicane - between the Sigur Rós cover, soundalike collaborators Vigri, and several other SR-esque pieces laden with glockenspiels and reverby soaring vocals, Nick seems to want to hide his own musical identity and pretend to be someone else.

The occasional attempts to relive past glories are similarly disappointing - Playing Fields is effectively No Ordinary Morning without the charm or the feeling, and the few more trance-oriented tracks sadly feature the same slick, lifeless bank of sounds Bracegirdle has been using since the mid '00s (and continues to do so today). Going Deep, although utterly awful, I can at least respect as an example of him trying something different - but it's so laughably out of place on this album that I can't work out why it wasn't one of his many non-album singles.

Windbreaks and Flotsum & Jetsum are certainly nice pieces in their own right, and are worth checking out for people wanting something vaguely in the same league as the first two Chicane albums, but sadly in his first non-pop album for 12 years, Nick Bracegirdle disappoints once more. Certainly he retains a sizeable and ionate fanbase, but for those hoping to recapture the magic of those early years, that hope is fading fast.

The artwork is a copy of Jean-Michel Jarre's "Magnetic Fields".... embarrasing !

This album follows on the heals of "Giants" and Nick returning to his melodic trancy roots, with inspiration from Icelandic music. Perhaps the most fitting adjective to describe this album, especially it's deluxe vesion, is; "versions". Much of this album pays homage to Sigur Ros (just like Poppiholla and Middledistancerunner on Giants) through either reinterpretation of their songs, or their sound with the help of Vigri.

"The Nothing Song" is an EDM reinterpretation of Sigur Ros's "Untitled 4" from the "()" album, while "Hljóp", "Sólarupprás", "Windbreaks", "Fin Des Jours", and "Three" clearly channel the essence of Sigur Ros.

"Windbreaks" sounds like a Chicane remix of Sigur Ros covering "Elysium" & "Now We Are Free" from The Gladiator soundtrack.

"Thousand Mile Stare" is a nod to Solarstone - Seven Cities.

"Playing Fields" harkens back to Chicane's sunny atmospheric melodic vocals from "Far From The Maddening Crowds" and "Behind The Sun" a la "No Ordinary Morning" and "Leaving Town".

"Sólarupprás" is a Sigur Ros inspired trancy thumper. However, listening to the vocal refrain, all I can hear is Trent Reznor singing "and you could have it all" from NIN's "Hurt".

"Going Deep" (Original & Moogmonkey Rework) is a pretty standard club stomper. The original version features rapping vocals, while the Moogmonkey reworks is much more piano driven.

"Goldfish" is an atmospheric piano and string tune with chanting. Similar to "Windbreaks", it sounds inspired by something off the Gladiator soundtrack.

"Flotsum & Jetsum" & "Super Mouflon" are reminiscent of Ferry Corsten's "L.E.F." era.

If you have the Deluxe version you can hear Chicane's interpretation of the "Mission Impossible" theme song. Just having a bit of fun on this one?

The cover is a nod to Jean Michel Jarre's "Magnetic Fields" album.

That's not to say this album is bad. This album still sounds like Chicane. In fact the energy level rises and falls with greater intensity than most of his other albums. I rather enjoy listening to it. By drawing inspiration from many sources it sounds like Chicane interpretations of some great songs by other artists.

Chicane is a sellout. Trash album.