Album Review: Tape Deck Mountain- Sway
When an album gets a review on P4K, I often wonder how many
people sit down to read the actual review given, or if they just look at the
numbers—what did it get out of 10? Did it get “Best New Music?” Is it a
backhanded score—like a 7.9? Why not just give it an 8.0?
There seem to be, in general, three kinds of albums that get
a review on the holiest of holy of all music websites: there’s the “big”
albums—albums you’ve been anticipating for weeks, and more often than not,
these artists have probably been given quite a bit of coverage by the site in
the days leading up to the album release and inevitable review; then there’s
the “fallen mighty”—once heavily touted by Pitchfork themselves, by the time a
buzz band from like three or four years ago are on their third LP, they are
pretty much all washed up, like last week’s review of the new Sleigh Bells
record. In 2010, their debut LP Treats
was proudly branded “Best New Music,” and given an 8.7 out of 10. Cut to
today—a paltry 5.9. Tsk tsk.
Finally, there are the artists you’ve never ever heard of.
And their website will never have more traffic than it does on the day their
self-released album somehow manages a review—let alone a somewhat positive
review at that.
Such is the case with Tape Deck Mountain, and their new LP,
the gorgeous, gazey Sway—garnering a
respectable 6 out of 10.
If you are a fan of shoegaze, however, Sway is much more than a 6. It’s much more than a number—most
albums are, honestly, which is why for this site, I opted to not include a numerical
rating system, and simply to state the case for the album—sometimes good,
sometimes bad, sometimes both at the same time.
As has been indicated by previous pieces, many young bands
are picking up their Fender Jazzmasters and carrying the long burning touch
once handled by My Bloody Valentine and Ride, bringing it into modern times.
Heck, the cover art for Sway is a
SHRINE to the Jazzmaster—the preferred weapon of mass destruction to anyone
claiming to be in a shoegaze band.
While Sway
obviously owes a lot to that Loveless
sound, there’s also a hint of the Golden Age-Sonic Youth snarl in frontman
Travis Trevisan—specifically early on in the track “Slow Hell.” The entire
album is a huge leap forward from 2009’s Ghost—and
the gazey dreamy waves come crashing down on the album’s phenomenal third
track, “Always Lie,” where a machine gun guitar oscillation pretty much
destroys everything that gets in the way.
Tape Deck Mountain balances a hazy aesthetic throughout Sway—post-Sonic Youth post-punk, sleepy
down-tuned alternative rock, and of course, the ‘gaze. There’s a definite cloud
machine-produced fog that hangs low and thick on the album’s second half, as
exemplified in “Pretend Friends.” The latter portion of the record also is
noisy as all fuck—the feedback blasts on “PI II” turn out to be some of the
album’s most abrasive.
Sway’s final
moments end somewhat anticlimactically—“Meta,” aptly titled, is a bit of a
callback to the band’s lo-fi sound from four years ago. It’s a quiet, reserved
song, perhaps serving as a “cool down” lap after the sonic punishment served up
earlier on.
Not exactly a “young” band at this point, with two full
lengths and a smattering of EPs to their name, Tape Deck Mountain are an act
that continue to develop with each release. Sway
does its best to transcend the influences it wears in its sleeve.
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