The Intelligence
Vintage Future
*** out of *****
The Intelligence (who self describe as playing art-smarm surf) have been the brain child of Lars Finberg since 2004 and the group have just released their newest offering Vintage Future. The album is a mix of quirky dark pop, always keeping the listener guessing.
The current lineup is a four piece (Lars Finberg - vocals and guitar, drums, keyboards, drum machine Dave Hernandez - guitar Kaanan Tupper - drums Drew Church - bass) as the Seattle based group covers a wide range of topics and styles. The starting and stopping pop rock of "Sex" proves that sarcasm is at the forefront of the lyrics while the grooving "Nocturnal Admissions" follows its heart exploding by way of cocaine dreams.
The band is keen to wander and try out styles int eh same number, like in "Platinum Janitor" or "Tourists". Both begin slow and meander to nowhere before ending on high notes. "Cleaning Lady" messes with some industrial dance moves as does the disk closing title track.
The two standout tracks happen mid way through as the fast paced clanging guitars of the Buzzcock influenced "Whip My Valet" rings out strong before "We Refuse To Play" runs the gamut of the bands styles from dance laden to noise driven while reaming tight as hell. The simply titled "Dieu Merci Pour La Fixation De La Machine A Coudre" also is a gem building up via bass and drums to a flourish of sound.
Vintage Future is engaging and at times weird but never flies off into uncharted directions. Lyrically Finberg is playful but never cutting to the point of off putting.
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Support the band here, buy the album here stream, the album here, stream "Whip My Valet" below:
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