- 27
- Jun
Our Love To Admire isn't out for a couple of weeks, but the chatter about the Cure, extra creepiness, and added accents/atmospherics -- while basically true -- is already tired. At least it's more interesting than discussing Interpol's suits and drink hangouts, or rehashing New York's post-punk renaissance. Three years have passed since Antics and a lot's changed -- the same can't be said for the NY quartet's third album. These older, hairier, dog-owning dudes basically sound the same except when they opt to take their sweet, melancholic time, allowing things to unfurl unhurriedly.
Major label deals can result in chancier recordings: Something to prove? Bigger budget? More time? Our Love's occasional new-romantic expansiveness and molasses pacing is likely the result of group maturity/chemistry mixed with all of the above (one also wonders the effects of Carlo D's stache). Whatever the case, Our Love's longest, languorous songs -- those given space to build (i.e. the ones folks may consider boring) -- are the record's truly captivating hooks. On the other hand, the quick, jagged numbers/mid-tempo tracks can be ear candy (a restless Joy Division haunts old timey, strong first single "The Heinrich Maneuver") or occasionally compelling (would someone with better math skills please chart the woozy energy of "Mammoth" or, bad title and all, the lovely non-arc of "No I in Threesome"?), but quite a few of the pithier tracks pass without much impact (see "Who Do You Think?," "Scale").