Without question, the most difficult reviews to write are those about “guilty pleasure” albums. Why? For the writer, it's impossible to trash a guilty pleasure album because it wouldn't be doing the band justice. The writer knows he shouldn't like something but, for whatever reason, cannot pan it in good conscience. For the reader, it's easy to get confused or lost in the resulting prose because the average guilty pleasure review often reads in a very conflicted way; again, because the writer doesn't know how to say he loves the record without coming off like a total dork. No Age's new album, Everything In Between, is every ounce the guilty pleasure record; there are lots of things about it not to like, but listeners will find themselves unable to say they don't like it if they play out the run-time from start to finish.
Things do not start smoothly as “Life Prowler” opens the record. The thumpy and garish beat that fuels the song plays like a dotted line in all the wrong ways and singer Randy Randall can't seem to stop himself from being repetitive (the words “My life” have not appeared so often before in two and a half minutes) and the song dynamics employed were torn straight out of the synth pop Bible proposed in the Eighties. Simply put, the song is static, monotone and repetitive – but listeners won't be able to turn away. The trend continues into “Glitter” which would be worrisome if every rock snob within earshot wasn't drawn – as if in a trance – toward the sheets of Sonic Youth-esque textural feedback that the band has overlaid onto the top of the song. That texture is captivating and somehow makes Randall's monotone not only permissible, but welcome.
Then, out of nowhere, the band suits up for a slab of Seventies-vintage Noo Yawk street punk called “Fever Dreaming,” and that's when they set the hook; perhaps because most listeners were already prepared to write both the band and their record off, “Fever Dreaming” (and “Depletion,” the song that follows it) is just infectious enough to sit everyone back down and compell the to want to see how it all turns out.
While there's no arguing that the record is a challenge, no one who sat back down or “Fever Dreaming” and “Depletion” will stand up to write the band off through the rest of Everything In Between's run-time. Those subjected to the album begin to get the feeling that they can't leave now, because they might miss something incredible. For that patience, listeners are rewarded with some pretty wild moments (from a conceptual standpoint – if not from a 'performance' one) as No Age kicks its' way through Everything In Between. Moments of hymnal rock grandeur dot “Skinned,” “Katerpillar” and “Valley Hump Crash” and make it feel like the band might be a sort of inexperienced and bargain basement version of U2 (who I don't like either) before going just a little further out and strapping some post-punk clamor to that sound for the thoroughly pointless and aggravating “Sorts.” It goes without saying at this point that such reckless generic cross-pollination can be difficult to take (if you don't skip “Dusted” fearing it to be the cause of a migraine, you're a better man than I) but, more often than not, the results prove to be thought-provoking and impossible to deny; because of the way No Age presents itself and its' music, love it or hate it, you're going to hear it.
But how long can it last? Really, it's only fun to watch a car accident so often before you become desensitized to the carnage which, in this case, means No Age will eventually have to either straighten out and play music that doesn't rely on novel generic affectations to keep a listener's attention, or fade away. That likely won't happen for a while though; for now, listeners can simply giggle a self-loathing little giggle at the fact that they're actually enjoying this sophomoric calamity – even though they likely shouldn't.
Artist:
www.noagela.blogspot.com/
www.myspace.com/nonoage
Download:
No Age – “Glitter” – Everything In Between
Album:
Everything In Between is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
