Thursday, August 15, 2013

Album Review: No Age -An Object

No Age
An Object
** out of *****

In 2010 No Age's Everything In Between combined artistic shoegaze with punk flashes for a winning combo, on this years follow up An Object, the energy and low end are lacking leaving only the diverse thin experiments behind.

The opening "No Ground" has a chirping beginning before the bass rumbles and guitar screeches, but there is one thing missing from here and the album in general, the drums. Percussion is secondary (or nonexistent) on most of An Object and the songs suffer for it. The minimalist approach is fine for sonic experiments but when a 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) gear is called for the absence or light percussion doesn't oblige.

The group has chosen to let it's ethereal art flag fly, mixing in even digital beats with violins ("An Impression") and machine like vocals ("Defector/ed"). The duo of Dean Spunt and Randy Randall seem more interested in creating pop structure songs then making them unique with hiss, screech and sonic glazes. Tracks like "Lock Box" and "Running From A Go-Go" could have been top 40 hits in days gone; minus of course the weirdness No Age add.

The overall effort is short and feels light and wispy. Perhaps the most interesting track is "I Won't Be Your Generator" which finds the duo performing a wounded pop song in the vein of The National with a lo/fi budget.   

The punkiest thing An Object has to offer is "C'mon Stimmung" with it's rock edge and noiserock screeches to close, this balance between unique and raw is what No Age so successful, here's hoping they keep pushing boundaries but return to the ground with the power in the next phase of their journey.
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We really enjoyed the last album as we mentioned (and wrote about here and even put it in the top ten here) but this one did not do it for us, a little too experimental without enough meat.

Support the artist here, peep some samples below:
"An Impression"

"C'mon Stimmung"


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