The songs are long and droning, almost every musical aspect is extended. This sometimes works in a hauntingly beautiful fashion, and sometimes just puts me to sleep. Such is the balance of Low’s latest album “Drums and Guns”. While their method is hit and miss, I have to condone them for stepping outside the usual indie formula. When they break out the beats, the slower pace allows for maximum groove, and their guitar solos feel like a piece of chewing gum that someone stretched out, in a good way. Their highest achievement would be the stellar harmonies that hold the album together. One outstanding point where a song pulls out from being sonic wallpaper and into a pop gem is “Hatchet” (8). When it’s growling bass line and clinky guitar give way to the harmonized lyrics about rivalries between the Beatles and the Stones it manifests the album’s most fun moment. The only thing is that as soon as it gets rolling it’s over. The best example of their slow-mo groovy-ness would be “Breaker” (3). It sounds like the funkiest funeral march you’ve ever heard, with its droning church organ and hand claps it’s like what you’d expect to be played at James Brown’s funeral. Low create some haunting soundscapes and drones that end before they get old, which is good because people can only take so much of the same note, but when they get something good going it ends far too soon.
Buy “Drums and Guns”
Low Myspace
MP3 – Breaker – Low
MP3 – Hatchet – Low
The home label of dance remix powerhouses Justice and Sebastian prove that they’re just getting started. Infused with a unique electronic brand of funk, this album stands apart from stale BPM and tired clichés. They will use thick beats, hand claps, and funkadelic breakdowns to override your logic and make you move your ass. From bad girl grime (2), smooth beach beats (11), the soundtrack for your ultimate road trip (14), and just plain booty shaking vocoder laced nonsense (3), they have the technology, and they will make you dance. I could not think of a better compilation to have blasting out of your car stereo system, this is the sound of summer 2007.
Buy Vol. 2
Ed Banger Myspace
MP3 – Phantom – Justice
MP3 – Vicarious Bliss – “Limousine” Dub Version
MP3 – Eagle Eyes – My Flash
Maximo Park’s “Our Earthly Pleasures” contains all the elements that made their debut so successful; manic stop and go rhythms, melodic guitar, and sparkling twitchy keyboards, and of course, Paul Smith’s trademark dictionary checking lyrics. There could be a seamless transition from the last track of “A Certain Trigger” to the beginning of the new album. To those who fell in love with the first album, this is great news.
If anything the overall feel of the album is that the sensitivity factor has been played up big this time. Many songs recount incidents of relationships that ignite and fall apart and are told with such emotion and intelligence that they will surely burrow themselves into your consciousness. One such tune is “Books from Boxes” (3), that is clearly inspired by Johnny Marr’s guitar work, but it’s the lyrics again that steal the spotlight. The lyrics present Mr. Smith as a romantic growing ever more cynical; “Well this is something new/ but it turns out it was borrowed too/ Why does every let down have to be so thin? / Rain explodes at the moment that the cab door closed/ I feel the weight upon your kiss ambiguous”. You can feel the frustration and disappointment as the chords gently fade and he decides “just to write, after all.”
Not to worry though full on fun tunes are still here, most notably with the keyboard driven flagship single “Our Velocity” (2) that explodes with the urge to run and jump around as much as possible at breakneck speeds as you mull over the concept of love; “love is a lie, which means I’ve been lied to, which means I’ve been lying too.” The neurotic theme of Maximo Park’s work carries through, but there are shining moments of optimism. In the fevered quest to catch a girl’s eye “A Fortnight’s Time” (10), Paul Smith exudes a sweet charm as he croons “So, would you like to go on a date with me?” With an album like this, I don’t see how any girl could decline that invitation.
Buy “Our Earthly Pleasures”
Maximo Park Myspace
MP3 – Books from Boxes – Maximo Park
MP3 – A Fortnight’s Time – Maximo Park
MP3 – Our Velocity – Maximo Park
At his best Thomas lunch sounds reminiscent of early 90’s alternative acts like the Dandy Warhols and the Blur with his thrashy fuzzy guitars and sweeping choruses. When he does his straight up rock numbers some are genuine body rockers, but on occasion he deviates from this formula and the results are a mixed bag. Like the synth laden “tator tots & robots” (4), they sound good and enhance the beat and the song as a whole, but does he have to repeat “tator tots & robots” over and over again? That refrain just makes a song that would have been pretty sweet into one that opens and closes with annoyance. Instrumentally, Thomas Lunch is pretty solid with his thrashy guitar heavy power pop. Opener, “fire puppy” (1) builds and builds over a growling bass line and a simple beat until visions of an overly rowdy summer concert overtake me due a guitar heavy chorus and unchained solo that leads into handclaps. “You are my drug” (2) is probably the most anthematic song on the album. It employs a similar quiet loud aesthetic, but really draws out the quiet part and amps up the guitar riff-age so that when the song goes ape-shit, you will too. The one two punch of the first two tracks really isn’t matched by the remainder of the album although some tracks come close. “beginnings” (14) is a nice change of pace with its slower tempo and use of piano and organ. Thomas Lunch has a firm grasp on the world of rock & roll, but I am most curious as to where he will take it with a sophomore album.
Buy “Diagrams Without Instructions”
Thomas Lunch Myspace
MP3 – Fire Puppy – Thomas Lunch
MP3 – You are My Drug – Thomas Lunch
