Mesh: album reviews and ratings

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Reviews & Recommendations

How can you accept it's just the way When everyday's the same old wash of grey -- mesh	*mesh*

Artist Listing:

S - Z

Mark Hockings - keyboards, vocals, lyrics
Richard Silverthorn - keyboards, programming
Neil Taylor - keyboards, programming (1991-2006)

"mesh is a band from Bristol (England) formed in 1994, producing synthpop with a crossover appeal to mainstream rock. Similarities and influences range from Erasure and Depeche Mode, to the harsher Nine Inch Nails industrial beats. Mark Hockings' voice bares close resemblance to Savage Garden's Darren Hayes, and Depeche Mode's Martin L. Gore."

-- musicfolio.com

Mesh Discography - Album / CD Reviews

1995: Fragile EP
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1996: In This Place Forever
Includes the club hit 'You didnt Want Me'.
"Deep, introspective and dancy, 'In This Place Forever' paved the way for a major label contract with Metropolis."

-- the-mausoleum.com

1998: Fragmente
Tracklisting: 1.Trust You 2.My Defender 3. You Didn’t Want Me (album) 4.I don’t think they know 5.Confined 6. Someone to Believe In 7. State of Mind 8. So Important (acoustic) 9.In the light of day 10.I Don’t Expect to be Right (originally featured on Swedish Electromagnetic compilation) 11.The Purest People 12.Trust You (mesh remix)
Collection of singles, b-sides and rarities. This was primarily released in Germany to coincide with the band’s 1998 tour.

Mesh - The Point At Which it all Falls Apart

¼1999: The Point At Which it All Falls Apart
Musicfolio Picks: I Fall Over, The Damage You Do, It Scares Me.
"Like such D.M. releases as Songs Of Faith And Devotion, Ultra and Violator, there are some seriously dark overtones on 'The Point At Which It Falls Apart'. As well, the lyrics are sung with such an outpouring of emotion that there is an instant connection with the singer. Both bands are predominantly synth based but, where they become noticably different is that Mesh has a more industrial sound to them. Where Depeche Mode generally stays away from the heavy guitars, Mesh embraces them like a twisted BDSM session. Purely synth based songs like People Like Me (With This Gun)are disturbingly creepy while The Damage You Do is an emotion fueled masterpiece. My personal favorite, Needle In A Bruise, sounds like it could have been taken straight from Ultra, up until the powerful chorus layered with some heavy industrial guitars. In general, this is a dark release with a lot of great music on it. Even though at times it is quite a similar style to Depeche Mode, Mesh stands on its own. It is apparent with Mesh's appearance and rise in the music industry that Depeche Mode's war for public acceptance of the synth as a form of creating music has not gone unnoticed. "

-- skulliest, amazon customer from Alberta,CA, 7/01

2002: Who Watches Over Me?
"While the album follows a general formula blending elements of mainstream commercial rock to classic synthpop, it still stands as an incredibly strong artistic effort. 'Who Watches Over Me' offers numerous catchy electro-pop melodies with a hint of EBM driving beats, generously packing 12 songs and a few instrumental bridgings into an hour-long record. If you could get over the few annoying tracks on the album (To be Alive, RazorWire and mostly Four Walls), this CD could very well be your synthpop pick of the year.
Musicfolio Picks: Firefly, Retaliation, Little Missile, What Does it Cost You, Friends Like These."

-- Said Sukkarieh, musicfolio.com, 3/02

2002: Fragmente 2
Another collection of singles, b-sides and rarities. Most songs on Fragmente 2 were already featured on Fragmente. This is a 2CD package offering more remixes, with additional songs. Spans 1995 to 1999.

¾ 2006: We Collide
Tracklisting: 01. Open Up The Ground 02. What Are You Scared Of 03. Step By Step 04. No Place Like Home 05. Petrified 06. Rest In Pieces 07. This Is What You Wanted 08. Room With A View 09. My Hands Are Tied 10. Crash 11. Can You Mend Hearts 12. The World's A Big Place
"Mesh are still as inspired today as they were four years ago. They have perfected their formula, and having Gareth Jones (Depeche Mode, Erasure, John Foxx, Nick Cave, Indochine, ...) behind the mixer on their new album, 'We Collide', doesn't hurt either. The album is packed with stimulating electronic programming/sequencing and subtle use of guitars as aptly demonstrated on the strong opening track Open Up The Ground. Step by Step is a bomb! With its addictive melody and soaring chorus, this one will pack dancefloors, and with lyrics like 'I learn about touch through your hands, ... I learn about taste through your lips' it will send young girls' hearts racing. Another moving track worthy of distinctive mention on the album, Can You Mend Hearts, is an emotive song provoked by the double murder of two 10-year-old girls in England in 2002 that horrified the world. 'We Collide' is not all flawless though, a few weaker tracks blemish the whole.
My appreciation for these three very talented musicians is growing by the day, and I must say that they play in the same league as heroes like Depeche Mode."

-- DJ Avalanche, musicfolio.com, 4/06

½ 2009: A Perfect Solution
Tracklisting: 01. If We Stay Here 02. Only Better 03. Everything I Made 04. Is It So Hard 05. Hold It Together 06. It’s Gone 07. How Long 08. Who Says 09. Hope, Dreams 10. Want You 11. The Bitter End
"... in many ways there’s an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” ethic at play here. In many ways this could be We Collide II: Still Colliding. The formula they reached on the last album – strip away the pure electronics of their earlier albums, ramp up the emotional power delivery in the vocals, add more guitar (and more, and more) and even some convention drums and wrap it all up in a new sheen – is still there. For the talk of this being a more trad-alt-rock project (and this has some degree of truth) it hasn’t veered too much from what has come before.
So, the good. The songwriting remains ever-strong. Now a duo, the writing chops haven’t been comprised a bit from the slimming down of the line up. And there are some real gems here. The best of the lot include The Bitter End, a throbbing electro anthem (and a lot of this album aspires to an anthemic place), Who Says, an awesome, bitter, relationship-gone wrong call-and-response featuring Julia Beyer of Technoir (and let us just say that a band can do no wrong be using the captivating Beyer as a guest vocalist), and strong stompers like Hold it Together and Everything I Made. Many of these tracks would have fit nicely along-side any of the best songs on 'We Collide'.
The less-good. There is a lot of filler here. Songs so forgettable (like the plodding Want You or the just boring How Long?) that they feel beneath a band so accomplished as Mesh. And what was once a cute gimmick, one used by bands like Depeche Mode, Venus Hum on The Colours in the Wheel, and even Mesh themselves in the past has become a distracting crutch – the little bonus instrumental following songs. Badly overused here and incredibly off-putting, especially for those listening to the songs out of order, say on shuffle function on an iPod. One asks, why?. There are also tracks that feel too ordinary – too much like contemporary rock music and Mesh are better than that. Guitar, fine. Drums, fine, we suppose. But on those occasions when you don’t hear much but that with a little rawk bombast thrown in for good measure, and one is hard pressed not to roll the eyes. The album is not a memorable one, but we fully acknowledge that the bar is high for this band. There are few who do this stuff better. We apply a higher standard to Mesh because they are so damn good and sometimes this one feels like it falls a little short."

-- softsynth.wordpress.com, 11/09

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Recommended Links:

Mesh's Official website
In This Place Forever: Mesh