The jacket shows a photo of a bunch of guys that I could have possibly gone to high school with, and yet the sound emitted from their debut album is everything but something you'd stumble across in my modern suburbia. A big music goal they fulfill on this album is the difference in each song. Most records have songs that sort of blend from one to the next. While Parallel You has the same hauntingly melancholy, hindsight driven vocals that stripe through all the songs, each one is snowflake like and emotionally so original. Take a hint of techno, a little folk guitar and a dash of dark rock and you've got yourself Valve. You may also have a really good band to watch for in the current music mania.--- Vanessa Bormann
  I must say that I've never heard of Valve before, so the fact that this is something of a reunion album doesn't do much for me. What does impress me is the music itself, which is just about as great as the gushy press notes claim. If this is the reunion, how come I never heard of these guys before? Just a question. Anyway, Valve plays vaguely atmospheric pop (basic song construction with the occasional intrusion of strings or keyboards or whatever) in a refreshingly straightforward way. But that simple method of presentation doesn't lead to simplistic songwriting. In fact, Valve takes advantage of its spartan skeleton to wander around a bit (though never getting far from the nest). There's a nice undercurrent to each song, a piece that runs contrary to conventional theory. Perhaps it's a slightly off hi-hat cymbal or a bass line that bounces oddly every once in a while. Just enough to really hook a listener. Boy, I am impressed. This is some fine stuff. I don't know where Valve has been, but I'm glad I got to have this taste. I think delve back in now for a deeper meal.
 

Hey Live 105 guys you need to be playing at least one cut off this CD everry 10 minutes! VALVE's "Parallel You" sounds like they already own the airwaves. So how come I'm not hearing it all over the radio? Lucky for me the CD mysteriously turned up on my desk one day or I might never have heard it. The CD starts out with a one-two punch of back to back knockout songs and then keeps hitting you with eight more killer numbers. I put this cd in my CD/ Alarm Clock / Radio and used it to wake me up, only trouble was when it came on I wanted to keep listening so I ended up cleaning my whole room in the nude 'til the damn thing was over.

VALVE was formed over 10 years ago when guitarists Shawn Riley and Ben Weible moved west to San Francisco from Madison, Wisconsin. Their band went through a few name and personnel changes. Erik Litzen was a major addition for lead vocals shortly after moving to San Francisco all those years ago. Erik has a voice like velvet, strong yet dreamy, never off during live gigs, always confident (this guy must get a lot of babes after every show). The bands rythm section consists of Chris Rucker on bass and LLiam Hart on drums.

Reading their liner notes I found this product was not recorded in some cheezy ADAT studio, but was crafted over several months with veteran producer Daniel Presley (Spain, Faith No More, Breeders, Jewel). Listen especially to "Revolution", "Ashes", "Summa", "Reinventing Monday" and "Speedtown". You'll hear some strongly crafted songs enhanced with vibrant guitar tones, a textural array of samples, expansive string arrangements and riveting drum tracks. The final result is a mesmerizing debut effort, a powerfully emotional, thoroughly modern creation -John Rocker
  Valve seem to be going for a neat sound. They take spacey electronic music and mix it with college rock style music to create dreamy tracks that induce toe tapping.
  Valve have been bouncing around for quite a few years now, somehow dodging the sort of mainstream acceptance that could make them big. Parallel You offers competent alterna-pop with occasional hard edges, and several of the songs are include strings, heightening the dreamy mood. I can see this doing well on the sort of commercial alt-rock stations that aim for the coveted female 18-35 demo.
  Wait, there's more! A slick band called Valve, and the disc Parallel You: I really like the opening song "Speedtown"; it's a very strong opener. Kind of sounds like the Happy Mondays meet the Don't Tell a Soul-era 'Mats. Good driving beat and jangly guitar. The lead singer (Erik Litzen) sings with a sort of quiet, forced hush--at times his voice borders on the Butler dude from the P-furs--minus the heavy brit accent. This is very much the case on the second song "Revolution". This is also a very good song--slower, more moodier, with some pretty lush string arrangements thrown in for good measure. It signals the slowing down of the whole disc though, which ultimately is what drags it all down in my book. They try to get too 'moody' in my opinion, which gets real boring when done to excess. (You can even hear a little bit of the Cure at points). Not bad--good instrumentation, good singing . The one other song I like that I listen to is called "Either Way", which has that classic jangly/strumming guitar line mixed with a good refrain that carrys the song. It's probably a disc I'll continue to listen too.