Cymbals Eat Guitars | Lenses Alien

Barsuk (2011)
By RYAN REED  |  September 7, 2011
4.0 4.0 Stars

ceg-m

"Rifle Eyesight (Proper Name)," the epic opener on Cymbals Eat Guitars' sophomore full-length, starts out in familiar territory: strangled guitars push and pull, tossing discarded noise across the stereo spectrum like cigarette butts. It's the most indie-rock-sounding thing you'll hear all year — which means, briefly, Cymbals Eat Guitars sound kinda-sorta conventional. Talk about a fucking misnomer. Throughout eight-and-a-half gorgeous minutes, the quartet leave no sonic stone unturned, layering their jagged six-strings with percussion overdubs, gorgeous piano trills, and Joseph D'Agostino's A-bomb of a voice. The track builds and shapeshifts through tempos and styles — there are guitar effects, military cymbals, and gigantic falsetto swoops. It's art-rock masquerading as indie, but there's absolutely nothing disingenuous about their Titanic-sized emotions. Cymbals Eat Guitars are arrangement maximalists — the nervous "Shore Points" sounds like nine excellent tracks crammed into less than three minutes; "Keep Me Waiting" throbs like vintage emo but wields a hook sharper than a scythe; and "Plainclothes" morphs from disco bass to punk angst to psychedelic drool. ("Dry mushrooms taste a lot like communion wafers.") There are sonic surprises littered throughout these 10 marvelous tracks: the astral harmonies and soothing electric piano that unfold midway through the hyper-literate "Definite Darkness," the classic-rock guitar solos in the climax of lighter-waver "Another Tunguska," Moon & Antarctica effects-pedal webs on "Secret Family." So many wonderful things happen on Lenses Alien that you can't possibly remember them all. The only solution, of course, is to listen again.

CYMBALS EAT GUITARS + HOORAY FOR EARTH + BEIGE | Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave, Allston | September 20 @ 8 pm | 18+ | $12 | 617.779.0140

Related: The Sounds | Something To Die For, The Horrors | Skying, CSS | La Liberacion, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Music, Dance, Indie Rock,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY RYAN REED
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   WAVVES | AFRAID OF HEIGHTS  |  March 18, 2013
    "I Can't Dream," the closer on Wavves' fourth studio album, opens in a drunken lo-fi stupor — Nathan Williams warbling bratty, tone-deaf nonsense over hissy acoustic power chords.
  •   THE VIRGINS | STRIKE GENTLY  |  March 06, 2013
    After a half-decade of semi-obscurity, frontman Donald Cumming is redefining his band as the hipster sultans of swing.
  •   ATOMS FOR PEACE | AMOK  |  February 26, 2013
    Kid A , Radiohead's confounding electro-rock masterpiece, is officially hitting puberty.
  •   ATLAS GENIUS | WHEN IT WAS NOW  |  February 20, 2013
    Atlas Genius are schooled students of modern pop architecture, seamlessly bouncing from Coldplay-styled acoustic rock to fizzy Phoenix funkiness to deadpanned Strokes-ian guitar chug. But When It Was Now is more like an alt-pop NOW compilation than a joyous synthesis.
  •   FOALS | HOLY FIRE  |  February 11, 2013
    Even at their most expansive, Foals are digging into more primal territory.

 See all articles by: RYAN REED