I guess it shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise, this gentle rise of Brit pop from the American hinterlands. The lasting dynamic of \u201990s stalwarts Oasis, Pulp and Blur have filtered through the music of more and more upcoming indie bands, finding a solace in angular guitars and catchy choruses. And thank god for that, really, lest we be subjected to bands finding inspiration from American catastrophes Matchbox Twenty, Collective Soul or Third Eye Blind.<\/p>\n
The latest band to enter the Brit fray is The Violet Lights, a rock duo from Los Angeles (by way of Green Bay, Wisconsin), whose debut EP Sex & Sound hits all the right notes in a satisfying yet ordinary way. I\u2019ve read others denote the Violet Lights as a \u201cgarage\u201d band, but that\u2019s only if the garage comes carpeted, air conditioned and fashioned with a fancy door closer. Sex & Sound is not as gritty as it wants to be, but instead has uncovered a high degree of aseptic countenance.<\/p>\n
Opening track \u201cYour Love\/Not Enough\u201d is a jam after The Jam\u2019s heart, a break of crashing drums and cymbals with lyrics and guitars set at a stern syncopation. Singer Joel Nass croons along at a clipped pace with the racing guitars, easing the tempo with a whispering bridge which builds to a typical crescendo. Ultimately, it\u2019s the \u201cWhoa Ohs\u201d sprinkled throughout which draw me in the most.<\/p>\n
\u201cSubstitute\u201d has the most potential, a loud\/quiet\/loud track where Nass is having the most fun (he\u2019s channeling his inner Damon Albarn), alternatively singing and snapping in sighs and bellows. The guitar breaks, while a bit ensconced in solo cliches, work well amidst the chaos \u2013 I get the sense they came into the song with all these ideas of how it should be, and instead of doing a little editing, kept all of it. Usually such acts become a disaster, here it succeeds.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a lesson the Lights should pay attention to. The staid title track is a by-the-numbers pop pleaser which tries too hard \u2013 the hand clap break two-thirds of the way through is pure pandering \u2013 leaving me wondering if the band has the inventive chops for a full-length album. Album-ending \u201cIt\u2019d be Fine\u201d doesn\u2019t help the matter, a tepid ballad where the sole benefit comes from the voice of Amber Garvey, who should sing more.<\/p>\n
When American bands delve into Brit pop there\u2019s going to be some missteps in translation, as Sex & Sound demonstrates, but this a solid effort. Whether or not the Lights continue to musically dwell across the pond remains to be seen, but it\u2019s a development worth watching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I guess it shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise, this gentle rise of Brit pop from the American hinterlands. The lasting dynamic of \u201990s stalwarts Oasis, Pulp and Blur have filtered through the music of more and more upcoming indie bands, finding a solace in angular guitars and catchy choruses. And thank god for that, really, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1235,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[319,318],"class_list":["post-1234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-sex-sound","tag-the-violet-lights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234","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=1234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1236,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234\/revisions\/1236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}