This is an LP that has quickly enthused me. I can't say I know
it properly yet, but do feel I have to put finger to key as soon
as possible.
On the face of it, The Unicorns have created a record with all
the standard American Indie/Lo-Fi stylings present and correct.
Crunchy guitars mix with cardbox box drums, whispered vocals and
cheesy keyboards. It's far more pop than the current crop of post
punk influenced bands, but it's not a million miles from Hot Hot
Heat either.
But the weird thing is that in all these catchy tunes there is
not a lot of repetition. Obviously I'm a bit of an anorak when it
comes to looking at song structures, but I think that most people
would notice the lack of choruses on here. Hardly any of these
songs has what I'd call a normal chorus, but each song has lots
of catchy bits - some never repeated, others revisited with
different arrangements.
I don't know how this affects other people, but for me it
engenders some odd compulsive behaviour. As you don't get to hear
that great bit you liked in the middle of the song (and the bit
that follows it, and that cool little flourish that joins it to
the next bit) again, I'm tempted with almost every song to put it
back on again - what was that? - I need to hear it again!
The songs are more like journeys - sometimes with no going back
at all (when you repeat the song, you do wonder how you got to
the end from where you started!). Like all journeys, sometimes
you go through a place that has echoes of a previous place and
sometimes the terrain is totally different. But let me make this
clear, there is no shoe-horning of lots of disparate bits into an
unwieldy whole - you don't sit there feeling part of willful
experimentation, you're just enthralled by the array of sounds
you hear.
Obviously there is some willfulness on the part of the band. It's
easier to write songs with repetition - they're easier to learn
and easier to get your audience on board with, but whether this
is a conscious experiment or just the way they like to do it, the
end result is great stuff.
Oh, and they sound like they're having a lot of fun too. What
I've said so far might make the band sound like they're on some
serious musical quest, well maybe they are, but the lyrics are
jokey or deflate standard indie angst themes, the music is fun -
though serious by turns too. I can imagine some people putting
this in a box with They Might Be Giants and other querky college
rock. Maybe that's where it will eventually belong, but right now
I don't see it that way.
Anyway, I know very little about this, a review in Pitchfork
piqued my interest, a visit to their record label
yielded a couple of downloads from the album, the promise of
which sent me scurrying to Amazon. This time I wasn't
disappointed. The payback isn't usually this good!
Neal - 17/01/04