In one convenient package, Theselah combine the elegant longing of
slo-core with raucous, arty songs from the noisier corners of indie rock.
With today's rapid proliferation of styles and the gene-splicing recombination of multiple
musical genres, it had to happen eventually. The New York quartet's second album
begins with a delicate, haunting rumination on a departing lover and ends with a
creepy lullaby about (perhaps) the same soured romance; between those points, the band
sprawls over musical boundaries while maintaining focus on melodic
dual guitar work. The appropriately-titled "Bad-Ass HiFi" shatters the quiet of
the first two songs with a blast of rhythmic power and squalling feedback. The
best songs, some of them wholly instrumental, come into being when the two approaches are
combined, as on "Uryne", where reverb and fuzz-drenched guitar underscores an
echoey vocal that seems to have jumped ship from a different breed of song
altogether.
The nearly hardcore pounding of "Anthem of K.O.A" celebrates the band's self-run
record label -- its only lyrics the repeated drunken-cheerleader shout of
"K.O.A.!". This is followed by a downer of a closing track: "Little Song to Self" employs a tinkly sing-song to relate a sad tale of being dumped, similar
to the first track's story: "If you always loved me then I never
knew/you gave me a heart of stone to drown in you." A couple of songs suffer
for not being more fully fleshed out, such as "Anna Come Out", which never quite
moves beyond a sketch. The album maintains a surreal air, notable in both the
lyrics ("Flying monkeys without their fur/hallucinations but I'm not sure") and
the swirling music; against the odds, the effect is more compelling than
pretentious. For having been recorded on a four-track, the sound is amazingly rich
and layered; Theselah have more in mind than simply lo-fi noodling. A distinct advance from their
more experimental 1999 debut, No Sleep, More Fun points the way forward
for a young band who should have a lot more fun coming to them in the future if
their music keeps improving at this pace.
