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I worry about the collective memory of musicians (though critics aren\u2019t much better) \u2013 too quick to reference the recent band of renown instead of the founding fathers (or mothers, as it were). If we\u2019re truthful, every answer to who influenced a band should be \u201cJames Brown,\u201d but if we did that some dipshit would tweet \u201cwho\u2019s that?\u201d And they wouldn\u2019t be kidding.<\/p>\n
Seattle\u2019s Cumulus is hailed as the new Best Coast or Dum Dum Girls, descendants of Elastica and Velocity Girl. But I\u2019m gonna go back farther, because none of them would exist without the genius of Blondie, a legendary band which re-piqued my interest following the death of Lou Reed (the two were \u201970s contemporaries). In Alex Niedzialkowski\u2019s voice and Lance Umble\u2019s arrangements, Cumulus\u2019 debut I Never Meant It To Be Like This echoes the breadth of Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, and my pop-plated insides could not be happier.<\/p>\n
Niedzialkowski\u2019s voice is sweet but balanced by a background that wants to rock, giving tracks a grittiness akin to eating salt-rock candy. Plush pop opener \u201cDo You Remember,\u201d with its jangled guitars, begets the churning \u201cHey Love,\u201d a song in the Blondie apex, with grinding guitars and dulcet lyrical tones. The heavy \u201cEnd Of The World\u201d has Niedzialkowski\u2019s voice rivaling the powerful sound around her, while \u201cFiction\u201d dives into My Bloody Valentine land, a fuzzy reverb filling the track throughout.<\/p>\n
A throwback whether it knows it or not, I Never Meant borrows from the best for a satisfying listen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I worry about the collective memory of musicians (though critics aren\u2019t much better) \u2013 too quick to reference the recent band of renown instead of the founding fathers (or mothers, as it were). If we\u2019re truthful, every answer to who influenced a band should be \u201cJames Brown,\u201d but if we did that some dipshit would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1429,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[438,439],"class_list":["post-1428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-cumulus","tag-i-never-meant-it-to-be-like-this"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1428","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=1428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1430,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1428\/revisions\/1430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}