Lime - 3

Name: Lime
Album: 3
Year: 1983
Style: Disco / Synth
Similar Bands: Chromeo, Hail Social, Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, New Order, Animotion
"One-Word" Review: Cold Disco
Based Out Of: Montreal, Canada
Label: Matra Records, Downstairs Records

3 - Cover & Record

3 Back & Record

3 (1983)

1. Guilty 7:01
2. Angel Eyes 7:40
3. On The Grid 4:00 /
4. Give Me Your Body 7:15
5. Together 6:53
6. Rendezvous on the Dark Side of the Moon 8:01

Album Rating (1-10): 8.5

Members & Other bands:Denis Le Page - Vocals, Producer, Programming, Mixing
Denis Le Page - Vocals, Producer, Mixing, Programming, Synth
Denyse LePage - Vox
Joy Dorris - Performance Singer
Chris Marsh - Performance Singer
Studio Graffiti - Cover Concept
Claude Allard - Engineer
George Cucuzzella - Executive Producer, Mixing
Joe La Greca - Executive Producer
Joe Tortorici - Executive Producer
Michael Simard - Mixing
John Moralis - Mixing
Sergio Munzibai - Mixing
John Moralis - Mixing

Unknown-ness: I’ve never heard of this band, but man, do I love the artwork. It is so neon and futuristic, yet dated to the 80’s like space age furniture is dated to the 50’s. I can only imagine the genre is disco, as there are only 6 tracks, all 4 to 8 minutes long. But with artwork like this, it is too hard to pass up seeing what is inside.

Album Review: “Guilty” begins with a cold synth piano and is backed up, one instrument at a time, with a Pet Shop Boys bass beat, and a variety of icy synth video-game-ish sound effects. Finally a new order style drum beat is mixed in and the song kicks off. The vocals remind me of what I’d imagine Divine would sound like singing disco (actually I have a Divine CD at home, I’ll have to listen to it and compare). It is raspy, yet bold. It contains many layers of hooks, from the vocal melody, the bouncing synthesizers in the background, and the crystalline keyboard effects. The individual components of the song have merit, but when they are all mixed together, they become something much more superficial sounding. The cycle of the verse-chorus is long, so as the song is over seven minutes long, it does not feel long, since it is not overly repetitive. Except for maybe the chorus repetition at the end, that finally finishes in a fade out.
“Angel Eyes” was apparently their big hit. And for good reason. It continues with the synthetic two beat drum kit effect throughout the song, and it introduces all the effects and melodies that it uses in the song at the beginning. This song sounds just like Chromeo. This song is even colder and calculated, with the vocals in the verse feeling very computerized. There is an emotional breakout of female and male vocals over the chorus singing “hold me and love me baby.” But for the most part, the vocals are just a rhythm adding to the tight and fun disco dance song. There is an instrumental section that reminds me a bit of the breakdown in “Axel F.” Again, the cycle of the song is long, with drawn out musical sections, which retains the fresh feel, without being too repetitive. The song could have ended around 6 minutes, but they chose to continue with very New Order sounding cold synth, and a final return of the chorus to finish out the song.
“On The Grid” feels like more Russian techno, with a dark, yet aggressive edge at the beginning. But the vocals are more like Sugar Hill Gang talk-sing rapping. There is a lot of use of computerized vocals repeatedly saying “on the grid.” The song is not very dimensional, as in it picks a beat and a steady drive, and goes with it, never diverting.

“Give Me Your Body” starts off in a positive mood, not nearly as cold as the first side of the album, with a very Erasure style of keyboards, even if the beat is not quite as dense as their style. And the vocals are shared between a minimal, quiet verse, and a high pitched, computer aided female chorus that floats up and over on a steady, beat filled melody. The style of synth that is used here also reminds me of 70’s AOR music. The song itself does not go very far, unfortunately. It settles in on its wispy, light rock vibe and steady medium paced beat.
“Together” gets itself going with what feels like is going to be the Animotion song “Obsession,” with driving beat and oscillating synthetic vibration. This sounds the closest to Disco as the album gets. But this also sounds a lot like Hail Social to me. Perhaps it is the echoing computerized voice that follows the lead in the chorus. But the disco element is supported in the twinkling bell and echoing laser blast effects that are used in many post Star Wars disco songs. The keyboard in the background in the middle of the song sounds exactly like the melody of the chorus in the Box Top’s “The Letter.”
“Rendezvous on the Dark Side of the Moon” is a mostly instrumental and very computer generated song, starting out with what sounds of a heartbeat for the first 50 seconds. It then takes a progressive turn, and with computer vocals counting down. It is an even darker and frozen soundscape than the rest of the album put together. It feels like it could be in the film Labyrinth or during the horrors of the Ice Palace collapsing in the Never Ending Story. It also sounds a bit like the band The Ghostwriters, previously reviewed. The very end of the song sounds like the very beginning of Danny Elfman’s “The Forbidden Zone”

Stand Out Track: Angel Eyes

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