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Rating:
Being added to the list of reviewers just a few days ago, I couldn't refrain from writing a few passionate lines in praise of one of my favorite bands (which also shape my Nickname...) of recent years. The New York quartet has reached the peak of its musical and artistic ability with this album (perhaps they'll prove me wrong with their next work, I hope...). Les Savy Fav is the classic band that grew up on repeated listens to the Washington scene (Dischord Docet), trying, however, completing the maturation process, to pull away and explore more "Pop" terrains (while maintaining in the lyrics a certain protest matrix typical of the Washington D.C. scene).
The result is this album with a sure emotional impact capturing the four Brooklyn guys in a state of compositional grace. "Trajic Monsters," happily suspended between Pixies and Fugazi, opens the dance and "Crawling Can Be Beautiful" is indeed a Disco-Punk track especially for that doubling of electronic drums, the same goes for the subsequent "Disco Drive," which with those female choruses and the guitar sound, still recalls the more playfully Pop tracks of the Boston quartet (we'll never stop saying how significant their influence has been on the entire Underground). The dialogue between drums and Synth with a roaring bass at the beginning of "The Slip" completes with the others already mentioned the danceable triad of "Go Forth"; in this unprecedented guise, Les Savy Fav achieves the best results, in some passages of disarming splendor.
Some subsequent tracks perhaps indulge too much in self-indulgence: how many times have we heard the arpeggios of "Adoption" or the initial bass line of "No Sleeves"? This does not mean the tracks are bland; indeed, the New-Wave echoes (certain Talking Heads) in "No Sleeves" literally give wings to the song, making it perhaps the most compelling anthem of this album. Tim Harrington's voice doesn't adequately support the cadences of the final "Bloom On Demand," and it's a real shame because the piece deserved a better vocal interpretation since musically it was truly a heart-stopper suspended between devolution and Bostonian goblins (again...) with a monastic Synth at the end. A collection of 7" is coming out in these days titled "Inches," do you think it's worth missing?
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