This album came out back in February and I am glad to have caught up with it., Bad Pelicans are a French post-punk band who deviates from the normal in the best way possible. The opening track oozes with attitude. The low baritone vocals croak as much as croon. They are at times both more melodic and more explosive on the same track. This can be heard on the song "Best Friend" . This is not the only time they prove themselves masters of odd dynamic choices as things on "2 Kool 4 the Wave Pool" goes from a upbeat indie rock jangle that starts the verse to a buzz saw guitar that feels like blackened grunge.
The vocals are great. Melodies purposeful with out being pop, and the are a dynamic range of vocal colors based off the mood of the song, rather than the normal monotone affect most bands doing post-punk try to emulate from Ian Curtis. "Flex Hang 4" has a 1950's surf pop feel . Many of these songs required multiple, listens in order to gather my thoughts on what was going down. "Supercop" is driven by an angular noise rock riff. The vocals have more of a Sonic Youth like exclamation. This album is rough around the edges in all the right ways. There is a experimental feel to the sounds used to craft "Home" which flows really well.
They come pretty close to what was going on with alternative radio in the 90s on "I'm Fly" . It has a groove and hook run through the filter of weird. There are a couple of ambient interludes that I am bypassing for the purpose of the review, they are cool when I leave this album on to just play , but not really songs in their own right. there is more of a frantic urgency leading into the last song. It ebbs and flows as these guys are prone to do. They end up taking it in a really bizarre circus like direction. I will go ahead and give this album a 10, it is the best post-punk album I have heard this year, they throw the rules out the window and write great fucking songs.
No comments:
Post a Comment