No time, as always. I’m now into paper-writing mode – trying to put together two approaches to the same question, each of which will hopefully eventually morph into my field statements. Which is to say: I’ve got a lot on my mind.
That said, it’s December and it occurs to me that I’ve failed to review a LOT of my favorite albums for the year. So I’ll try and squeeze in a little bit of time for that here and there when I need a break from thinking about legality and legitimacy.
For now, a review of a couple tracks from upcoming releases (not due until 2010) that I’m pretty excited about.
SDP – The Kissaway Trail
First, there’s this epic track from the Danish band The Kissaway Trail. You may remember their similarly explosive “Smother + Evil = Hurt” from two years ago. This one is a suitable heir – a bit more tightly wound and not quite as irresistibly infectious, but huge and glorious and emphatic nonetheless. I sometimes feel like I’m more or less ‘over’ rock music as such – by which I mean those still walking the path laid down in the aftermath of the late 60s and early 70s. But tracks like this remind me that there are still new things to say and new ways to say them, even in a fairly constrained field. The moment at 5:00 when the sound fades away and you just KNOW that a huge burst of sound is about to hit you is a great example. It’s completely predictable, but somehow it manages to sound fresh and alive.
Sleep Mountain is due out in the spring of 2010.
Walls – Shout Out Louds
The Shout Out Louds are another band with a solid 2007 release that left me hoping they could kick things into the next gear on their follow-up. Our Ill Wills was a bit top-heavy with three or four ridiculously good songs and six or seven solid but mostly unremarkable Cure-inspired tracks. Based on the evidence of “Walls” I’m moderately optimistic. It doesn’t reach anywhere near the heights of “Impossible” or “You Are Dreaming” but it does represent a change in their sound. Things are a lot more restrained – with guitars that chug along a little more methodically, offering a far more substantial backbone. It takes a bit too long for them to get going (the first minute leaves me feeling a bit cold), but once they start to extemporize a little bit things really take off. The solid foundation gives them a lot of leeway for flourishes that pack a major punch.
I’m not always a fan of this move away from swooping expression into a more tightly circumscribed and self-contained sound (as my coming review of the new Tegan and Sara will demonstrate), but I think it really works for them here.
The record is called Work and is due out in February from Merge.