Sunday, August 16, 2020

Parlor Walls: "Heavy Tongue"







Here is a bizarre band that is for all preactical purposes industrial . Ok lets think of it as an industrial version of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I found this band going down a Bandcamp rabbit hole. It was reccomended by White Hills. There are similar elements . The use of electronics and atmosphere in an unconventional manner being at the top of the list. The atmosphere does not work as well on the aimless "Game". This duo works better with a beat behind them. "Lunchbox " supplies one while getting dark to create a winning combination for me. The vocals of Alyse Lamb are hauntingly sing song.  "Violets" has more of an 80s feel. It reminds me a little of that rap song " I Need Love". It is catchier than the previous songs.

"Pinafore > Ignite" give creadence to the claims I made about the industrial element as it is more aggressive and abrsaive in it's drive. I never claimed they were taking the traditional approach to industrial. "Spinning Gold" continues down the industrial path though with more atmosphere than the previous song. The vocals have a droning quality to them and fall some where between St. Vincent and Siouxsie. The production of this album, is very stylistic. Raw where it needs to be yet as the instruments are well layeredl The vocals come across great, with effects on them , but not over done.

The abum ends on a weird note, but that is pretty fitting considering how left of center this entire album is. The beat drones, though there are a great deal of some what noisy layers in this song to contend with and the chant of " Keep me hanging on" grows on you. I will give this album and 8.5, some times it is non conformist where trying to adhere to more of a pop song fromat might have been doing themselves a favor. This is balanaced out by the unique nature of what they do , but doesn't ensure that this is going to be an album I find myself returning to which is the basis of my judgement when it comes to ranking albums in my reviews. In case you were wondering how I come up with it. If you are looking for something different, this is it.



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