Complete with requisite shouts, handclaps, inexplicable lyrics and imminently danceable beats, Architecture in Helsinki are back with a psych-rock party record. There's usually two things that happen to dance/party bands like Architecture in Helsinki in terms of recording. They either A) Lose all the frenetic energy they capitalize on in live shows and release a record that is boring and staid or B) What they release on record sounds totally different than their live show, and not for the worse or better, but just different.
Architecture in Helsinki does the latter, and expands their palette into something that does not sound unlike the B-52's. Whenever I think of the B-52's, I think of the skit from The State where Thomas Lennon, as Fred Schneider, is a stalker that keeps showing up in the oddest places. "Everybody's drinking the coffee! Everybody's pouring the tea!"
That doesn't have much to do with anything, other than the fact that I really don't like the B-52's, love the skit, but still find this album tasteful, danceable, and not a complete joke. While the B-52's tend to come off as infectious but also obnoxious, AiH lean towards the infectious, not completely singable but entirely danceable hooks. Hold Music is the most obvious example of this comparison, but you have to take into account that they have some serious out-of-control-ness, hip-hop inspired beats and killer melodies that make me just want to run around for a little while.
They use some more exotic rhythms on this record as well; they place a lot more emphasis on the head nodding rhythm of hand drums on Heart it Races and somehow manage to keep an high energy level sustained through the song.
I saw them recently, and one thing did shock me, though. Between song banter indicated that these songs are actually about something. I always thought it was gibberish strung together to sound like stuff you'd shout when you were at a party or things that just sounded good repeated over and over and over again. Regardless, that's the case: Lyrics are chanted over and over again, and the solid rhythmic thump takes care of the rest.
There's a lot of enjoyable tracks here that are definitley best experienced live or even watched live, like the Take Away show videos that completely capture the dynamic and unpredictable nature of things when you get 8 or so people playing music like this. The instrumentation isn't so exotic, there's less electronics than previous albums, but you still have that weirdness that beats, as far as I'm concerned, the inaneness of bands like the Fiery Furnaces. |