Tag Archives: matador

New Music: Savages, The Answer

Savages, “The Answer” (Matador, 10/21/2015)

A new Savages track appeared today, together with a release date for the band’s new album – huzzah!

Savages’ debut, Silence Yourself, played with tension and barely contained fury through a dark, post-punk glaze; cathartic spikes poking through in patches.  The songs caromed between slow burning intensity and raucous indignation.

With ‘The Answer’, the raucous is turned up to ten (eleven?).  Vocalist Jhenny Beth howls like Siouxsie at the center of a druggy, hypnotic maelstrom with hornet’s nest guitars and a driving rhythm that brings to mind psych/space rock, punk, metal, even early industrial.  This dizzy intensity matches the lyrics, wherein the ‘answer’ (in case you were curious) is love – a possessive, desperate love that leaves you panicky, insecure (“If you don’t love me, don’t love anybody/And you’re glad it’s you/…Love is the answer/I’ll go insane”).  Healthy?  Perhaps not, but many of us have had moments where the thought of getting to be with, or hanging on to, someone we desire is the only thing; alternatives too dire.  There lies madness…

“The Answer” will appear on Savages’ forthcoming album, Adore Life, due January, 2016, on Matador – and on this evidence, not a moment too soon.  It’s available for preorder now, through the band’s website.

New Music: Belle and Sebastian, The Party Line

Belle and Sebastian, ‘The Party Line’ (Matador)

Taken from to-be-released Girls In Peacetime Want to Dance (due January), this track shows a different side to the well-established Glaswegian outfit’s sound.  While B&S have never shied away from dance rhythms, past grooves reminded more of Ready, Steady, Go – this cut is more Dance Party USA; a shimmering, glossy piece of late-80s club, complete with whiteboy funky lead guitar and a snaky (synth) bassline.

This tune may yet inspire the band’s notoriously bookish fans to discard their cardigans and do the Roger Rabbit – ‘Where’s Me Jumper’, indeed.  Check out the video, below.