<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I remember the \u201980s, probably clearer than where I just left my keys (they were JUST here). The fashion, the excess, the sex, the drugs and of course the music. A touchstone of my time during the tumultuous decade was the movies of John Hughes and the soundtracks to come from those tellings of teen angst and bitterness. No film better captures this era than Pretty in Pink, a Cinderella story featuring a guy named Duckie, Molly Ringwald as a poor indie girl, a cameo by the Rave-Ups and a creepy James Spader (which, let\u2019s be honest, is all James Spader does).<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also the greatest soundtrack ever.<\/p>\n
The Psychedelic Furs share space with The Smiths, INXS, OMD and Echo & the Bunnymen. It is everything an \u201980s soundtrack should be. Turns out is has some company, albeit 25 years too late.<\/p>\n
If ever an album sounded like a soundtrack looking for an \u201980s movie to front, it is Dark Days, the latest effort by Cygnets. A wall of synths with overt homages to Depeche Mode, Joy Division and New Order, Dark Days is a throwback album of grand proportions (checking in at 57 minutes) where the Edmonton trio decided to revel in the synthesizer arts of the Me Decade.<\/p>\n
Even the album\u2019s name sounds like a perfect teen movie, with the song titles (\u201cTeenager,\u201d \u201cDark Romantic,\u201d \u201cRegression,\u201d \u201cWe Will Become Enemies\u201d) making excellent fodder for various scenes. There are two songs named after women (\u201cSarah Smith,\u201d \u201cCassie Ainsworth\u201d) and another for a man (\u201cRichey Edwards Traces\u201d) \u2013 the band is giving you the name of its cast. And if the music is any indication how the movie would fare this much is certain \u2013 it will be catchy as hell if not a bit redundant.<\/p>\n
Opener \u201cVictoria\u2019s Song\u201d is the perfect intro, 40 seconds of moody blips and pings give way to a poppy synth line that would make Martin Gore jealous. Lead singer\/bassist Logan Turner sings with a faux British accent prime for the music he fronts, repeating words with purpose \u2013 I swear he says \u201cEngland\u201d 1,257 times in the song.<\/p>\n
\u201cTeenager\u201d comes next (an \u201980s soundtrack with a song called Teenager, I can\u2019t stand the congruity) \u2013 a racing drum beat meets the Sparks-like attitude, with Turner spitting out gross overviews of teen life: \u201cYou met a boy, you took some pills and drank too much,\u201d he muses. \u201cYou\u2019re a teenager.\u201d Here too Turner rides the redundant train, asking \u201cAre you still in the void?\u201d for what seems like forever (this is used again later in \u201cRichey Edwards Traces\u201d when the phrase \u201ctouching you, touching me\u201d is on repeat, reminiscent of Placebo\u2019s \u201cEvery You Every Me,\u201d which happens to be in the teen movie Cruel Intentions. Coincidence?).<\/p>\n
\u201cSarah Smith\u201d speaks of sexual frustration amid the soothing coos and splashing cymbals. \u201cI must have seen you ten times lately flirting with me unmistakably. Now you cannot even face me,\u201d Turner sings, adding, \u201cI fear I\u2019m wide-awake in this conversation. Fuck me, Sarah. Fuck me, Sarah.\u201d You\u2019d watch that scene, would you not?<\/p>\n
This segues nicely into \u201cWe Will Become Enemies\u201d a song whose message belies the bright chords that dance about it. \u201cRx Victims\u201d is the band at its best, as one of the shortest songs shows promise of a band who can live outside the 1980s but still reference it in a meaningful way.<\/p>\n
It does become tiresome near the end \u2013 a hour of synths and \u201980s nostalgia gets old after 35 minutes. The last two songs \u2013 \u201cDread City\u201d and \u201cRegression\u201d are 10 minutes of music the album could do without.<\/p>\n
As a child of the \u201980s, I\u2019m hesitant to embrace a band that embraces the decade with such aplomb, but I have to give Cygnets some credit. It didn\u2019t try to play this off as an homage \u2013 these guys literally went back in time, setting the DeLorean back to 1985 with significant success. As Doc would ask \u201cDo you have no concept of time?\u201d The band\u2019s answer: No, none at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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