Mandalay ‎– Solace

SOLACE, a US-only compendium of British duo Mandalay’s output, is split over 2 discs (one of original material and one of remixes). On the first disc, we get a front-loaded “best of” collection from the groups two albums. “Not Seventeen,” “Like Her” and “It’s Enough Now” are all glistening trip-pop jewels, aided in no small part by Nicola Hitchcock’s fragile, breathy, and vibrato-laden vocals. Dreamy and romantic (“Beautiful” is a perfect example of this, though it’s a little too “adult contemporary” for my tastes), they’re vaguely reminiscent of the Cocteau Twins merged with a drum machine. The drum ‘n’ bass on “Flowers Bloom” help break up the slow tempo that the majority of the tracks share. But the latter part of the disc lacks the same personality and edge into banality (even the weird guitar buzz in “Kissing the Day”). The remixes on the second disc range from almost no change at all (the Attica Blues mix of “Not Seventeen”) to dancefloor fodder (the various mixes of “Beautiful” or Cevin Fisher’s take of “This Life”). But the better ones overhaul the originals more fully, like Charlie May on “Deep Love,” the atmospheric drum ‘n’ bass of Nitin Sawhney’s “Deep Love,” or even Wagon Christ’s respectful but funky version on “This Life.” A mixed bag, certainly, but with enough high points to raise it out of mediocrity.