Rolling Stone (3/18/04, p.70) - 3 stars out of 5 - "WHEN IT FALLS is absolutely busting with floaty Fender Rhodes keyboard riffs, plucked acoustic guitars, billowing coronets and sexy vocalists."
Spin (4/04, p.94) - "[T]hese svelte English soul-jazzers continue to play it sweet and low..." - Grade: B+
Entertainment Weekly (3/12/04, p.114) - "[Zero 7] return with a more accessible set of dreamy love songs." - Rating: B
Q (4/04, p.121) - 4 stars out of 5 - "WHEN IT FALLS is a sublime collection that surpasses its predecessor. It's the same sandy-smooth blend of jazz, funk, soul and the relaxed hip hop beats that informed SIMPLE THINGS..."
Mojo (Publisher) (3/04, p.104) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[T]he enchanting voice of Sia Furler lightly caresses its sweetest moments."
This is a Hyper CD, which contains regular audio tracks and also provides a link to the artist's website with the help of a web browser.
Zero 7: Sam Hardaker, Henry Binns.
Additional personnel: Mozez, Tina Dico, Sia Furler, Sophie Baker, Yvonne John Lewis (vocals); Dedi Madden (acoustic & electric guitars); Gerard Presencer (trumpet, flugelhorn).
This is a Hyper CD, which contains regular audio tracks and also provides a link to the artist's website with the help of a web browser.
Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker made their debut as Zero 7 to much acclaim with 2001's SIMPLE THINGS. The UK duo's follow-up, WHEN IT FALLS, is a refinement of their style, rather than an expansion. Producers/songwriters Binns and Hardaker once again concoct a sultry melange of soul, acid jazz, pop, and electronica, all filtered through a hazy, late-night mood that gets murky but never melancholic.
On this set of songs, warm electric piano and twinkling synthesizers dance atop a bed of subtly insinuated funk grooves with a lazy, mid-summer feeling. Guest vocalists (mostly female) intone sweetly atop Binns and Hardaker's tracks, perhaps most notably the honey-voiced Mozez, reprising her role from the first album. The perky "Look Up" speeds along in a loungey, Stereolab kind of way, but otherwise WHEN IT FALLS is strictly music for the chill-out room, a silky salve for tired ears, and a place where both bed-sitters and all-night revelers can come to collect themselves and soak up the serene vibe.
