By the time Brandon Hagan turns 30 he's gonna be Neil goddamn Young, rasping and croaking like every breath's his last. Vundabar's always been accelerated, always shown pop prowess shockingly beyond their years. It's only taken a couple years (and no small personal strife) for Hagan steers them away from catchy surf-rock highs into world-weary resignation. The yelping exuberance is gone, replaced with 90's underground chime and chug, layers building, only rarely bursting into hooks. Even the most melodic moments (Acetone and [one of the best pop songs of the year] Tonight I'm Wearing Silk) are awash in alienation and self-annihilation.
Which is to say, Smell Smoke's not much fun, but it's personal and evocative and satisfying to get down into. And god it's well paced -- TIWS is a great track, made triply so by the way it bursts out of Tar Tongue's agonized outro, and that raging buildup of $$$, into a classic 90's last-sounding-sneaky-setup-penultimate track* into a classic offkilter closer. I would have been obsessed with this record in high school.
I call time travel again. Or something. There's something Twilight Zone about the specific way this band is good.
I worry a little bit about the path they're on. Worry a little bit about Brandon if I'm honest. Dude's got a worrying approach to stage presence. And you can feel that same frayed energy in this record, for better or worse, just under simmering reverb 4/5
* eg Sofa of My Lethargy, We're an American Band (YLT), Between Your Ear and Your Other Ear, Sweet Sweet, By Starlight, etc
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment