Decades / Failures: "Goodby3"

This project has grown  into a duo since their last outing and it gives Decades/Failures a bigger more post-punk sound than the stiffer cold wave they offered up last year. The bass lines are more organic. The vocals have distortion to them and are further back in the mix. They fix the need for a human voice, but come across like an instrument. The new post-punk coating finds them adoring Joy Division and Wire. The presence of more guitar fills things out and if they add a member every album by the next album these guys will be holding their own against the bigger bands of the post-punk revival. The next thing they need to acquire is a drummer as the thin beats of their drum machine limit what they can do dynamically.

"Fractured" wanders around despite the cool synth bass line that you think would anchor it to something. The vocals are even more distant and incomprehensible. Which is not a bad sound , I think on a song with less form, having the vocals hold it down might be more effective.  They are back to spookier dark wave with a pretty killer bass line of "Secret Superstitions". But a bass line alone doesn't make a song, not does ghostly keyboards. The vocal stick to the same stiff narrative voice. I understand the minimalist trent, but you can't minimize the elements needed to create songs that go some where, the drums are minimal enough, beyond that something has to have enough meat to bite into.

The songs range from four to five minutes with the five minute jams seeming like they drag a little. The Cure ish vibe to "Slow Waves" makes for their best song. The vocals don't have to do much , because the song is already laid out and they would then be the icing on the cake. Which is good because they are almost a whisper. The bass line add a little more drive on "Midnight to Six" , which is a pretty decent song, though it reminds me a really lo-fi version of She Wants Revenge. There is a darker and more heady element to the almost Kraut rock drone of "the 3 Line". The guitar tone is really cool here and this song is one of the clearest indications of how this project is evolving.

There is a Interpol underwater feel to the closing "Pretty Deadly" like most of the others songs it finds it's place and drones you into the slow motion dance floor riot that is brewing. The vocals are almost a robotic vibration at this point in the album.The synth sounds get better as the album progresses and they find their groove. This album is fun for dark rainy nights, I'll bookmark the Bandcamp, but I already have a bunch of stuff close to this sound on my iPod so I will give it a 8.5, the highest rating I'll give an album if I don't feel compelled to own it, but you might and it's pay what you want.