The Raincoats were the most defiantly feminine post-punk band not because they were women, but because they were generous in spirit — more a tribe than a jigsaw of egos, intelligent enough to realize that being personal doesn’t mean you aren’t smart. Odyshape is cleaner and lonelier than their debut, dominated by violin, thudding tom-toms, and African and Jamaican influences via the streets of London. It’s the sound of a cold-water flat reimagined as a quiet clearing ?in the jungle.
