You can make an argument either way about where sonic cavaliers Death From Above 1979 – Canadian duo Sebastien Grainger and Jesse F.K Keeler in their street clothes – sit on the Good Time Soundtrack vs. Serious Musicians continuum.
They’re not exactly over productive at four albums (including their 2004 debut album You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine), but although the two-piece noisenik thing has hardly been a rarity since their arrival, whatever’s trended they’ve always had a little patch of stylistic land to call their own.
This time though the pair, who call their fervent stans Lovers (hence the album’s straight up title), took the step of writing, recording and mixing everything themselves, an act of equal parts pandemic necessity and self-sufficient experiment.
This is something of a step change for guys who after an initial burn-out inspired parting of the ways in 2005 refused to speak to each other for five years, but then again Grainger becoming a father during the process means this is DFA ’79 but with child seats and sleep deprivation thrown in.
At first things don’t seem to have changed; opener Modern Guy treats us to a squall of feedback and some tribal sounding drums before launching into their familiar thrashy, trashy mode of decibel stacking electro-rock.
Shifts come gradually; One + One is, the pair have said, a natural sequel to 2004’s Romantic Nights, Exhibit A being, ‘One plus one it’s three, that’s magic/You and me it’s so romantic’, but still throbs with that primal sex beat we know and love, while Free Animal also finds the beast again yet to be put back in its cage.
Even a new family knows that out in the world people are being shit, a phenomenon that the two parts of N.Y.C. Power Elite deal with via talk of ‘helicopter brunches’ and general contempt for the overclasses’ lack of self-awareness and cultural myopia.
The king of the hill though is Totally Wiped Out, a snatch of red eyeballed punk that skewers phone addicts and porn hounds whilst simultaneously bursting their ear drums.
So far, the pair are being good to everyone by making sure we get our full annual dose of riffage, but then comes a swift turn on the heel.
Firstly, Glass Homes does a more than passable impression of Daft Punk at their most Canuck (Keeler has admitted recently that they turned down the chance to support the French mavericks on 2007 epic Alive world tour).
Straight after that we get Love Letter, a piano-led ballad about writing soppy stuff to your wife when you haven’t done Cupid any favours in the past. Whilst the airy synths and breeze-filled harmonies won’t give Dave Bayley many sleepless nights, it’s an episode you can definitely file under ‘Didn’t see that coming’.
This isn’t quite the end of the exploratory tour of other bands’ hangouts either; Mean Streets switches from whispered, sat-in-an-empty-bar-at-midnight torch song to industrial techno scree, then closer No War sees them try on the billowing cloak of seventies rawk melodrama, as worn by Matt Bellamy, a sort of pomp-filled cosmic sketchbook that out Muses Muse, if that indeed is a good thing.
Grainger and Keeler don’t really have much to prove, so Is 4 Lovers isn’t the sound of Death From Above 1979 in transition. Instead, on it the pair are trying out what in the twenties feels good to them, then as ever hitting at it with 100% conviction with you along for the ride.
Just don’t take up all the Mother & Baby parking slots, will ya?
Another outstanding review Andy. I wasn’t familiar with Death From Above 1979, so am glad your review has finally introduced them to me. I love your line “finds the beast again yet to be put back in its cage” that so beautifully and succinctly describes their frantic, no-holds-barred sound. They sound a bit like Royal Blood on steroids.