Highlights: Tears Of A Landlord, Show Us Your Canines, Chasing
Consummations, That’s Static, Jane With Dumbbells
Shrag’s third album, Canines, is for 2012 what Comet Gain’s Howl Of The Lonely Crowd was for 2011.
Gorgeous, lush indie-rock that borrows from c-86
and gutsy twee-pop of The Pastels (with in-tune singing and maybe a little less
edge) and the like. I can safely state here that as far as this sort of music
goes, Canines is an immaculate album,
tuneful and electrifying.
I really can’t find any
faults with this one. I might mention that there are a two or three songs here
I’m not too mad about (like the funky, repetitive “Devastating Bones”), but those
are the inevitable and forgivable result of not bothering with diversity.
Instrumentally, too, Shrag are tight as a drum. The guitar tone and terrific
bass lines create beautiful, dense chemistry that peaks with that 40-second
aural orgasm that ends “Show Us Your Canines”; and the soaring violin of the
following track, “Chasing Consummations”, brings the already good song to a
whole new level of greatness.
The melodies are
uniformly impressive, with the infectious “That’s Static” being the one that
will stay stuck in your mind for the longest while (would have been a brilliant
addition to Elastica’s classic debut). Also worth mentioning is the sweet,
pretty closer, “Jane With Dumbbells” that will make you think fondly of Moe
Tucker.
I know I’ve given a handful
of half-assed 8’s lately, but this is quite different. This is the real deal; and
the moment you hear that ‘no one likes the tears of a landlord’ line in the
album’s opener, you will know that.
8/10
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