Arcs Across The City is a record swimming with melodic chaos. The guitars are an aural epleptic fit, full of note bends and fret-tapping, and the vocals imperfections are both endearing and appealing. Almost mysteriously heading for the mainstream, this is a band that could have ended up, and stayed, on Jealous or Deep Elm. No disrespect to those labels but we're lucky this lot weren't left in the underground. Early days, good prospects.
Instead they have been thrusted forward and may just have the talent to actually do something. Underneath the frantic interplay is a strong sense of songwriting and this is what will carry the band onwards. This is a consistently strong record. All of it is powerful, though "The End And Everything After" and "Yes! You Talk Too Fast" are the highlights for me. That's just me. Maybe you'll think differently.
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The mixing makes the guitars a focal point, and on the epic closer "This Band Is Killing Us", the doubled harmonics at the end are nearly ear-crushing. It's as if Boris were writing pop music. And I, for one, am worryingly excited by it.
You like Pavement? You like Minus The Bear? You like boy/girl vocals? You like Johnny Foreigner.
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