Fear of Fours

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Fear of Fours
Fear of Fours cover
Studio album by Lamb
Released 17 May 1999
Genre Trip hop
Label Mercury
Professional reviews
Lamb chronology
Lamb
(1997)		 Fear of Fours
(1999)		 What Sound
(2001)

Fear of Fours is the title of Lamb's 1999 album.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Soft Mistake" – 3:15
  2. "Little Things" – 3:18
  3. "B Line" – 2:51
  4. [untitled] – 0:07
  5. "All in Your Hands" – 4:38
  6. "Less Than Two" – 1:18
  7. "Bonfire" – 4:23
  8. "Ear Parcel" – 7:54
  9. "Softly" – 3:55
  10. "Here" – 3:22
  11. "Fly" – 5:14
  12. "Alien" – 4:08
  13. "Five" – 5:46
  14. "Lullaby" – 2:56
  • On the CD release of the album, an alternate version of "Lullaby" is hidden in the pregap, which can be found by rewinding the CD back before the first track.

[edit] Notable Themes

The fourth track is not included on the album's track listing. It is a single struck chord which effectively ends the song "B Line" preceding it. This deliberate omission is a nod to the album's title, whose sentiment is revealed in a deeper level throughout the album: unusual time signatures. "Soft Mistake" is in 10/8. "B Line" is driven by a prominent bass line in 3/8, followed by the single note track 4. "Less Than Two" is in 12/8, backed by a repeating twelve beat phrase "needing you wanting you loving you holding you", and "Softly" is in 6/8. "Alien" continues in 12/8, although the rhythms are at times ambiguous. "Five", the most intricate yet, is in 5/8,5/8,5/8,5/8,5/8,6/8,5/8,6/8, which could also be written as 10/4,10/4,11/4,11/4. "Lullaby" rounds off the album in a slow, lazy 3/4 time. "Little Things" has a rather complex rhythmic pattern, which nevertheless converges to 4/4, or a multiple, depending on notation.

However some of the tracks are more conformist: "All In Your Hands", "Bonfire", "Ear Parcel", "Fly" all have time signatures which are at least divisible by 2 or 4, even though they may not be written as 4/4 per se. "Here" again has a 4/4 structure to it, though the bass plays rhythms which stress this as 3+3+2/8.

[edit] B Line video

The video was directed by Garth Jennings from director group, Hammer & Tongs.

It starts off with a black screen as the sounds of power is loading. When the lights come on we see Louise standing in what looks like an abandoned warehouse with a crumbled remains of a graffitied wall behind her. She then starts singing the song. As she dances, Andy comes and connects jumper cables to her hips, which are connected to a small control device which Andy operates. When the song reaches the first chorus, Andy pulls a lever which causes Louise's head to become huge and monster-like as she rises and flies in the air.

When the chorus ends, Andy pulls the lever again to turn off the power, causing Louise to go back to normal. She continues singing and dancing while Andy increases the power and pulls the lever again. Her head grows and she starts flying again but this time, her monster head is different than before: her eyes are red, her hair is flesh-coloured and there is a red marking on her forehead.

Then there is a problem, Andy can't turn it off. As the machine malfunctions, Louise starts having what could be a seizure as the wall breaks apart some more. Eventually, the control device explodes causing Andy's body to turn into a machine with huge biceped arms (the head however stays the same, making it looking small by comparison). Louise's head is still monster-like but she is now on the ground, though her walk looks like it defies grafity.

Sometimes, when the camera falls to the side at the end, the struck chord from the untitled 4th track of Fear Of Fours is played to end the video. Other times it's just silence.