Ms. John Soda
Issue #27
Notes and the Like (Morr Music)
By Rebecca Flint-Marx
Published: March 1st, 2006 | 12:00am
Ms. John Soda has always carried an air of mystery. Nine years ago, the band released a 7-inch adorned with a picture of a robot. While the robot became widely recognized, the band’s members remained an enigma until their 2002 full-length debut, No P. or D., when that album’s brand of chilly, new wave-inflected electro-rock was revealed to be the work of Couch’s Stefanie Böhm and Micha Acher of the Notwist.
Böhm and Acher can look forward to more adulation with the release of Notes and the Like, which offers both new sounds and a reinterpretation of some old ones. Fans of No P. or D. will probably thrill to a new version of that album’s “No. One.” Its lyrics now come outfitted with a driving, ornery bass line and pumped-up beat, which underscore its plaintive angst while making it eminently danceable.
Other standouts include “Outlined View” and “Sometimes Stop, Sometimes Go.” The latter features Böhm’s spoken lyrics layered over lush, melancholy harmonies, and is deeply affecting. “You’re standing in the doorway / you look at me outside / you’re thinking you’ll learn to know / to leave now or move on,” sings Böhm, giving heartbreaking voice to what could be a doomed relationship or, just as easily, the crippling indecisiveness of everyday life.
The album’s press release bills Notes as a move “from the robotic to the human.” And while it contains the kind of blips and squeaks that don’t typically invoke declarations of humanity, the album has soul. The robot is still here, but it’s singing a dreamy, downcast tune that will be music to the ears of its flesh and blood audience.
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