It proves engaging when a band carries the torch of past greats while trying to shut a portion of its own history behind opaque doors. Maybe that\u2019s why the self-titled debut by The Soft Pack is beguiling and yet a bit safe, though surely worth a listen.<\/p>\n
Formerly known as The Muslims (it was supposed to be satirical, say the four white guys), The Soft Pack shook off some haziness when creating a new album with a new name. The result is straight-ahead garage punk churned though the terse monotone of frontman Matt Lamkin, who never met an intonation he liked.<\/p>\n
The 31-minute, 10-song set pulls the listener at breakneck speed, imploring you to \u201cC\u2019mon\u201d at the start, \u201cMove Along\u201d at the halfway point, before ending with \u201cParasites,\u201d a five-minute guitar grind that\u2019s two minutes too long but fun nonetheless (maybe they were told the album had to be at least a half-hour long).<\/p>\n
In between are homages to The Feelies (\u201cMore or Less\u201d), Pixies (\u201cPull Out\u201d) and The Strokes (\u201cFlammable\u201d), which I know read like lazy comparisons, but it\u2019s unmistakable. I could expound on their expert use of the power chord, or Lamkin\u2019s love of dour lyrics, but all you need to know is this: If two-minute garage rock is your thing, The Soft Pack has your back.<\/p>\n
But if you\u2019re looking for some musical breakthrough, not so much. A band doesn\u2019t go from The Muslims to The Soft Pack if it\u2019s trying to make a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It proves engaging when a band carries the torch of past greats while trying to shut a portion of its own history behind opaque doors. Maybe that\u2019s why the self-titled debut by The Soft Pack is beguiling and yet a bit safe, though surely worth a listen. Formerly known as The Muslims (it was supposed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[303],"class_list":["post-1217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-review-the-soft-pack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1219,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions\/1219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}