Album Review: No Age- An Object
Going
into this, here are the few things I knew about No Age--
●
It’s a band
made up of two people.
●
Four years
ago, they had a cool, stop motiony video where adorable mice became the members
of the band, and played the song “Losing Feeling.”
●
Also, four
years ago, they played a show at the divey venue in the basement of one of the
dorms at Carleton College. I did not go.
●
Both members
of No Age are vegan, and for a moment, had a custom skate shoe available from
skateboarder Ed Templeton.
●
And finally,
last year, they were scheduled at a Converse event, where during their set,
they played a video featuring Black Friday shoppers, crying babies, and
information about the Converse sneaker sweatshops.
No
Age have a hard sound to pin down. Mostly, it’s referred to as “punk.”
Although, while punky, the aforementioned “Losing Feeling,” has a very loose,
dreamy, almost shoegazey feel to it.
Their
new full length, An Object,
distinctly echoes the sounds of punk’s past-- specifically The Ramones, specifically
exemplified in the flat vocal delivery. Musically, it’s not so much a step
backwards, but it’s a step in a different direction, when compared to the
embrace of experimentalism they had been building towards with their last full
length, Everything in Between, as well
as the Losing Feeling EP.
The
experimentation only really arrives within the final tracks—specifically “A
Celing Dreams of a Floor,” and the closing track, “Commerce, Comment,
Commence.” A bulk of the record lends itself to the vocal stylings—brash, sloppy
punk rock. But unlike copying the Ramones style and production value, note for
note, An Object is incredibly modern
sounding—it’s truly an album for and from 2013. It’s noisy, the guitars are
crunchy, and the percussion all sounds very raw—it’s like the sonic approach is
sounding “produced to sound unproduced,” if that makes any sense at all.
Aside
from a brief listen to some of their early material, many years ago, this is
the most time I’ve spent around No Age. I feel like they are a band I am supposed
to like; meaning, they are critically lauded (Pitchfork always gives their
releases an 8+), I agree with their stance on animal rights, and there’s enough
guitar effects and left turns in their music so that the Wikipedia entry for
one of their albums includes the genre “shoegaze.”
An Object isn’t a horrible record. And it’s a record I certainly don’t
dislike. A most excellent moment arrives with the Sonic Youth vibes radiating
from “I Won't Be Your Generator.” Musically it walks a tight line between
becoming unhinged and showing restraint, and it is one of the few songs that
doesn’t sound as “punky,” and sounds more like “jangly indie rock,” which is maybe why I liked
it.
My
fear is that An Object is just not
interesting enough for me to revisit—I don’t see myself putting this on in the
evenings, or wanting to play it in the car. But maybe “interesting” isn’t the
right word. Maybe I’m not the right intended audience for No Age. It’s music
that I’m not emotionally connecting with. It’s just guitars, drums, effects,
and vocals, coming together to make sounds that happen to be playing in my
headphones right now.
Comments
Post a Comment