Flak Magazine: Review of Pick Up by Solex, 09-14-99

English isn't Solex's (nom de reality: Elisabeth Esselink) first language (she's Dutch), and, to confound the confusion created by her accent, she has a habit of accenting the "wrong" syllables and breaking up her lyrics in the middle of sentences, not finishing them until 10 seconds of silence had passed. The liner notes for that first album didn't offer much help because all the lyrics were snippets of conversations Esselink had heard on TV or gleaned from the English-language press.

And the music was even stranger. A collage of re-recorded samples (Esselink would scout for great song snippets, re-record it at home, then sample it), Hitmeister sounded futuristic and unaccessible. Yet the easiest way to describe it is as a pop album recorded on hopelessly outdated equipment.

Esselink has made a few changes since then. She still writes all the songs, plays most of the instruments and produces the album (talk about girl power!). But she seems to have used her Matador money to swap her aging sampler for a new one, fulfilling a prophecy from the first album's "Solex All Licketysplit""

As soon as I got a paycheck, you asked me to make it hi-tech

Furthermore, the songs no longer feature Solex's moniker in the titles; she's eschewed the comic booky techinque of including Solex in all of her songs (and song titles) for more bizarre song titles like "Another Tune Like 'Not Fade Away'" — which bears little resemblence to the song she's so fond of covering in her live sets — and "That'll be $22.95."

Despite the changes, you won't find a drop-off in quality from Hitmeister. Esselink's penchant for writing quirky, coy pop songs comes to the fore, epecially on numbers like "That's What You Get With People Like That on Cruises Like These..." and "Escargot!"

"That's What You Get..." — the album's standout — begins with a lone trumpet,which is quickly joined by some kind of weird, Chinese-music-box-on-speed synthesizer. But of course bursts of guitar licks, an ultra-low bass-line and sexy Solex cooing make an appearance, too, all before Esselink tells a tale of a party animal with poor taste in clothing who wins a free cruise. Or maybe it's autiobiographical. Hard to tell.

As far as comparisons go, think Bjork and Pizzacato Five enjoying a few too many double lattes while rehearsing in the basement of a smoky London exotica club. Coy, continental vocals with a distinctively Eastern bent mix with goofy samples and indie diva-style supercroon. Add to that a loungy horn section that creeps in from time to time and you have a genre-hopping collage best described by one word. Pop.

— Eric Wittmershaus (ericw at flakmag dot com)