There are occasions on Lifeguard’s ‘Crowd Can Speak / Dressed In Trenches’ when the Chicago trio might need been clever to incorporate footnotes. Their knotty, intriguingly melodic noise calls to thoughts everybody from Polvo to Archers of Loaf, however thankfully their abrasive strategy to decoding the previous 30-odd years of indie-rock ensures that any additional studying can wait till after the ultimate be aware dies out.
A part of that propulsive feeling comes from the truth that, irrespective of how outdated their touchstones, Lifeguard are nonetheless youngsters. Asher Case (bass, vocals), Kai Slater (guitar, vocals) and Isaac Lowenstein (drums) met whereas in highschool and take each flip at 100 miles per hour, slamming into jagged, distorted peaks of sound with little look after their very own security like a band simply out to play some exhibits and trigger some carnage.
‘Crowd Can Speak / Dressed In Trenches’ is the band’s first launch for Matador Data, a label that helped to construct the home they dwell in by placing out classics by Pavement and Yo La Tengo, and compiles two EPs, one comprising older materials and another precisely reflecting the place they’re at proper now.
The previous, ‘Crowd Can Speak’, is an assured introduction to their enchantment, which is concentrated on sustaining an in-your-face dwell really feel whereas threading shocking refrains by means of the gaps left by Slater’s coruscating guitars. ‘Typecast’ is maybe the decide of the bunch, recalling J. Robbins’ post-Jawbox venture Burning Airways in its means to wrong-
foot the listener with surging noise and balletic melodies.
Opening ‘Wearing Trenches’, ’17-18 Lovesong’ rapidly places water between the place Lifeguard got here from and the place they’re going. It strings out a sequence of affected person drones and shows a eager understanding of the ability behind the eventual payoff if you’ll be able to stick the touchdown with a adequate hook. Case’s bass has additionally change into extra vigorous over time and it actually works as a foil, along with his counter-melodies stalking Slater’s jagged notes across the ring on the standout ‘Alarm’.
There’s a sense that Lifeguard will solely kick on from right here, discovering better steadiness between the competing parts of their music whereas additionally rising in confidence on the subject of taking inventive leaps. They’ve studied the blueprints and clearly get how these items works. Now it’s time to construct one thing of their very own.
Particulars
- Launch date: July 7
- Report label: Matador
