Thursday, September 4, 2014

#1396 Cymbals Eat Guitars - Lose

Is rock dead? I said it was out loud this weekend at the Jamaica Plain music festival where perfectly competent bands played perfectly competent rock music that simply didn't rock. Around that time, paragon of relevance Gene Simmons apparently was saying the same thing. Must be true. More on that shithead and what he's right and wrong about in possible upcoming post.

Spoiler alert, rock is in a coma, the per-decade beeps of garage rock revivals are its pulse.

This comes up because hearing this album is what got that notion pecking at its shell. This is perfectly good indie rock, perfectly enjoyable to listen to, inventive in its small ways, completely beyond reproach and completely unexciting. With no hint of danger, no real sense of newness, no spark that will defibrillate a heart. Hooks spin elliptical, reedy vocals soar, guitars chime, sands through the hourglass. The solos occasionally shred, the climaxes are climaxey - if this was 1999 this would rule, but why can't it make me feel alive in 2014?

Is this all that's left? Sitting by a bedside? 3/5

No comments:

Post a Comment