How many times have you seen it happen: indie hotshot band makes a swell record, gets lots of press, builds a fan base, signs to a bigger label, and immediately releases a completely horrible record that loses all its fans and turns the critics into a frothing pack of wild dogs. Quite often.
Pretty Girls Make Graves
manages to nimbly sidestep this tragedy by signing with
Matador
(just a small leap up in size from
Lookout
) and releasing a record that is actually a whole lot better than anything the group has previously done. In fact, it is better than one could imagine them ever being.
The New Romance
is a dramatic, thoughtful, emotional, imaginative, and hard-rocking effort full of songs that will tug at your heartstrings anthemically. The band, with help from producer
Phil Ek
, tones down its sonic assault a couple of notches and allows the music to open up and breathe some. Songs like
"Something Bigger, Something Brighter,"
the desperate-sounding
"The Teeth Collector,"
and
"This Is Our Emergency"
are epics built around the spiraling guitars of
Nathan Thelen
Jay Clark
, manic yet tightly controlled drums, fuzzy keyboards, and
Andrea Zollo
's soaring vocals; she's lost all traces of
riot grrrl
tunelessness but none of the toughness or power. There are traces of '80s
post-punk
,
Sonic Youth
Fugazi
, and
emo
in their sound; you could lump them in with the new wave of
new wave
bands like
Hot Hot Heat
or
the Vue
because they seem to share the same aesthetic. The only difference is that the members of
mean every word they say and note they play. And they are as good as any of the bands they take their cues from.
is the kind of record that will make the band's career. Put
on the short list of bands that matter and make sure you get this record. ~ Tim Sendra