Pros: Interesting sound, creative approach, not at all hard on the ears...
Cons: Occasionally repetitive, not necessarily all like Your Woman
The Bottom Line: If you're looking for an album full of Your Woman song, you'll be disappointed. If you come in with no pre-conceived notions prepare to be okay with Women in Technology.
lambchops's Full Review: Women in Technology by White Town
Jyoti Mishra never expected to have a mainstream hit. Yet, somehow his off-kilter homage to an unrequited teenage lesbian love Your Woman became just that in 1997 for the lifelong musician. However Mishra’s name remains relatively unknown—he is better remembered as White Town.
Writing, arranging, performing, and recording his own music since the early 1990’s. At first, the band was formed as a four-person outfit but Mishra was soon left to his own devices. He recorded a number of keyboard and guitar laden EPs and singles throughout the early part of the last decade before releasing his first full-length album Socialism, Sexism, and Sexuality in 1994. But his vision wasn’t entirely realized until he dropped the whole “indie” aesthetic and turned instead to his synthesizer roots. However it was Your Woman about his lesbian friend and featuring a trumpet sample from Lew Stone’s 1932 jazz track My Woman that got Mishra noticed by EMI and justifiably earned White Town a coveted record deal.
Fortunately for the English raised, Indian born artist his breakthrough album released by label Capitol Records titled Women in Technology offered up more of interest than a mere hit single. Funny thing is that Your Woman is not the standard across the album. That song is a funky up-tempo selection featuring muffled chanted vocals and an incredibly infectious beat. It’s impossible not to love and is the most likely song to become a hit single. It’s just enough off-kilter to draw in unlikely fans, but also just enough “pop” to catch radio listeners and MTV watchers. Don’t think you know it? You’re wrong:
Well I guess what you say is true
I could never be the right kind of girl for you
I could never be your woman (repeat 4x)
If listeners went into Women in Technology expecting eleven addition similar songs, they were largely disappointed. Mishra’s recordings are mild and calm in comparison beginning with album opener Undressed and lasting throughout. But calm evokes ideas of mellow adult contemporary which this album is decidedly not. It combines elements of disco and synth-pop with trip-hop to create something different than expected from the mainstream norm and in the end mostly appealing.
Nothing about this White Town album is off-putting. In fact, I like sitting down and listening to the twelve songs. It’s the kind of stuff that fits nicely into the background and only occasionally demands my attention (the most notable moment of course is Your Woman if only because of its unexpected nature). There are but a few occasions that Mishra’s music really stands out as excellent outside of the aforementioned single. Album opener Undressed is of the highest quality. It sounds like something from Squeeze or even New Order. It’s a perfect way to being this album. Thursday at the Blue Note adds more layers of modern synths (specifically drum machine sand whirrs) with Asian-inspired keyboards. It’s a peculiar, although welcome, direction for Women in Technology.
Toward the middle and end, there are less frequent moments of brilliance and distinct appeal. The Shape of Love keeps the dark trip-hop elements and blends them nicely with pop keyboards and Mishra’s lightly evocative vocals. It stands out as one of the best of this album. Outside of those songs already mentioned the obviously disco laced Going Nowhere Somehow and funky brooding album ender Once I Flew (which seems to have grown from the beat of Your Woman). The only real complaint I have is that three tracks are repetitive (in particular A Week Next June, White Town and instrumental xylophone-meets-Caribbean Theme for an Early Evening American Sitcom).
White Town is worth more than one would think. Mishra is in contemporary thought a “one hit wonder” but with that said his music is better than that. You may remember Your Woman rightfully as White Town’s only hit single, but as with many other oft-forgotten so called “one hit wonders” there is much more just beneath the surface than first meets the eye (or is it ear). White Town has subsequently recorded and released one more album, 1999’s Peek and Poke. It’s unlikely that Mishra will ever equal the success of Your Woman. To be honest, I think he’d prefer it that way.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Track Listing:
01. Undressed
02. Thursday at the Blue Note
03. A Week Next June
04. Your Woman
05. White Town
06. The Shape of Love
07. Wanted
08. The Function of the Orgasm
09. Going Nowhere Somehow
10. Theme for an Early Evening American Sitcom
11. The Death of My Desire
12. Once I Flew
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