The
Holiday & Sport EP is really more like an album, revolving around two very different concepts -- on one hand, there are the completely casual pop songs that marked the band's 1995 self-titled album (with a sporting lyrical theme), and on the other there's a newfound fascination with electronic sounds that manifests itself on three different mixes of "L.E.O." The pop songs fare much better, mainly since the "electronic" remixes are something of an aside -- the album's title track is a gorgeous pop song revolving around Wimbledon, with occasional squawks of Moogs and angular guitar, and a massively loose pop chorus (complete with handclaps). "L.E.O.," strangely enough, is a roughly danceable layer of analog synths with lo-fi quality that manages to be somewhat entertaining -- over successive remixes, this shifts to a general (and very extended) ambient wash. Of course, it's easy to ignore the jokiness implicit in this -- after all,
Holiday & Sport is an EP, and there at the onset are four of the rambling pop tunes you'd expect from
Sone. ~ Nitsuh Abebe