Album Review: Disappears- Era
Ok so I’m not like SUPER well versed in the ways of the
Chicago post-punk/shoegaze outfit Disappears.
But from their new LP, Era,
I get a general sense of what they’re all about.
Era comes off as
either a lite version of NYC noise makers A Place to Bury Strangers with some Interpol-esq leanings (circa 2002), OR, a slightly heavier version of any indie band
out there right now that works with slight plate reverb in their sound.
I don’t remember when I came across Disappears—at one point,
Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley was playing drums for them, and I’m guessing that
is probably how I even was aware of them. Shelly is no longer behind the
kit—the band’s Wikipedia claims he had some “scheduling conflicts.” It’s rather
fitting that someone from such an iconic band would file in with a relatively
young/unknown act—Disappears’ sound, at times, also owes QUITE a bit to Sonic
Youth.
Era, overall, is
pretty self-indulgent. Of the seven tracks on the LP, one of them is pushing
ten minutes, one is just a hair under eight, and the other is over six. The
rest are wrapped up nicely in pop-song length packages. Interestingly enough,
it’s not the nine minute “Ultra” that drags—it’s the closing track, the “spooky”
“New House,” with its monotone semi-cryptic lyrics, it trudges along at a
snail’s pace. It also is kind of a shitty closing song—I understand that
sometimes you want to bring the vibe down a little at the end, but damn. This
kind of kills the vibe—it’s most noticeable because the album starts out with
the super brash, shouty, noisy “Girl.”
While the record has a slightly more focused sounding aesthetic, by comparison of their previous two LPs, it comes off as a little uptight. 2010's Lux is very raw sounding; still brash, but also a little less self-aware. Last year's Pre-Language—the band’s only LP to feature Steve Shelly—packs their post-punk explosiveness into tighter songs. I stop short of saying they are “pop” songs, because they are certainly not, but the songwriting capabilities of the band obviously grew in the two years between albums.
Disappears are on Chicago-based label Kranky, which is also
the home to a like-minded Chicago band, Implodes. These records both actually
have a lot in common—aside from the obvious. The Implodes record wasn’t bad by
any means. It just wasn’t memorable. And that’s the unfortunate thing about Era. It’s a dense record, full of
well-thought out production work, and until it kind of comes to a halt towards
the end—the whole thing is paced pretty well; but there’s something that is
preventing this from being the kind of record you truly pay attention to, and
whether you want it to or not, becomes just some noise in the background.
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