Tough to verbalize what I'm on about here, but bear with me...
Listening to the new album by Rhye ("Woman") and although maybe the songs aren't particularly strong, I am interested in how it maintains a certain mood, timbre, aesthetic throughout with little exception.
...mind you, it's the sound of something I might've dismissively heard while shopping with an ex-girlfriend in a Pottery Barn or Pier 1 Imports on a Sunday afternoon circa '85. But because it invokes that feeling, that era, that lack of adult repsonsiblity/stress(?), it is somehow a positive sound to me.
I would say the debut by the XX a couple years back had the same sense of maintaining an aura / aesthetic throughout. It doesn't veer much. While some might complain about lack of stylistic adventure, sometimes I appreciate those albums which maintain a particular atmosphere from beginning to end.
What from OUR era would you say did the same?
I'm tempted to list something by the Cocteau Twins, where the songs all stayed in a certain environment - - even the artwork fit the mood.