Uphill City

Passionless Electronica

     

Four albums and one Piehead Records compilation later, I'm convinced that the artist behind I Am Robot And Proud is too comfortable with sounding neutral. Uphill City takes a small incremental step forward from previous albums as a technical exercise. The sound is more fleshed out and interesting, as if it is drawing inspiration from Vince Clarke. The difference here is that I Am Robot And Proud always cuts itself off before taking a pop melody to its natural conclusion. Take the opening of "Something To Write Home About", which starts happy and enthusiastic, with a chorus-like swell that makes it very promising indeed. Alas, one-third of the way into the song it changes gear and just sort of limps its way to the end. Another example is "The Melt" which starts off great but has no end. Certainly this is no Samuel Barber's "Adagio For Strings", but it sounds to my ears that I Am Robot And Proud has a long-held inhibition about expressing himself. Consequently, the music suffers, and instead of it making a connection with the listener, it relegates itself to the equivalent of background chatter.