"Your Favorite Coffee Shop"
may start the album with
samba
beats, but when the echoing, soft cascade of piano starts up, it's clear the listener is back in the world of
Orange Cake Mix
, something the synth bass makes even clearer. Like so many of
Jim Rao
's albums,
Another Orange World
features a baker's dozen worth of songs, in this particular case with an emphasis more on rhythms than on unaccompanied melodies. Calling
simple
synth pop
revivalists, though, misses the point --
Rao
isn't into replicating as he is suggesting, with songs like
"Waves in Space"
and
"Jai Guru Dev 2"
calling up an almost never-never land of the '80s that wasn't quite there. Something like
"And I Feel It Coming On"
definitely has more of the crisp, almost brutal surge of that time, though, with
's candyfloss singing and the reverb on the bass smoothing out the edges. The hints of
Beach Boys
lushness which appear on other records have a definite place here --
"Heaven Is Rising"
in particular is as close as
has ever gotten to a full-on
Pet Sounds
tribute -- while
"Get It Together Now"
is almost
Sly Stone
in ways. There are even more modern nods --
"Krishna Vision 3"
has something of the same rolling bliss and float of early-'90s
Orb
or
Primal Scream
, Hindi recitations blending amidst the drums, while breakbeat rhythms crop up more than once, as on
"Waiting for Another Light (To Shine on Me)."
For all the connections that can be made, though, at some point everything is best just accepted as it is, an unfolding of lovely melodies and striking arrangements balanced against a core approach that, for all its unchanging nature, never fails to captivate. ~ Ned Raggett