The CD opens with the distinctly down-beat “Wake Up Friend”. Rocking slowly between a couple of chords, this seems to be the story of someone in a coma after a car crash – a strange choice to start an album and not a great introduction to the band.
Taking the record as a whole, Iori's Eyes have an impressive collection of analog synth sounds that they use to create laid back songs with a late night ambient feel decorated with subtle retro style hints of seventies soul, eighties synthpop and something of an indie sensibility - imagine some Lenny Kravitz demos produced by Depeche Mode and you are just about there. Extremely camp sounding vocals fit within those soundscapes of swirling pads, Rhodes piano and the most stripped down drum patterns I think I've ever heard. But is it any good? I honestly can't make up my mind.
Whether you enjoy this CD is very much a taste issue. I can see where it's coming from (a pinch of Prince here, a touch of Tricky there), but I don't know where it's going, and maybe that's the problem – the album is unfocussed. It meanders throughout its length without any real goal, and by that I mean the songs are nice enough, and I can't fault the production or mix, but there is nothing which really sticks as being all that memorable. There is just enough (and I mean just enough) variation between tracks to prove that Iori's Eyes are more than one-song ponies, but as the whole CD is so laid back and slow paced that it never really seems to get out of the starting blocks.