Savages Adore Life
I have to say that I am impressed with Savages. Sure, when they appeared on Stephen Colbert I was a little blown away, but the fact that they chose to play Adore was even more surprising. Savages aren’t exactly easy listening, you know what I mean? And hot off the heels of their debut Silence Yourself, this band has established themselves as an intense and for lack of a better word, a very “dramatic” band. Have you watched the Late Show? The music on the show is bordering on mindless nostalgic clap-fests. But there they were: Savages bringing things down about 800 notches and commanding attention.
As if that wasn’t crazy enough, they were on Ellen a month later. ELLEN! “I love this band,” she proclaims much to the surprise to every human being on the planet. Whether they were forced to belittle themselves by dancing on the show is anyone’s guess (seriously, I’m not wasting my time even searching for it), but I can guarantee you there were some scratched heads and scared ear-holding in the audience and at home. Savages are on daytime television, everyone. And that’s reason enough to keep an eye out for this band.
This band’s music is both difficult and simple to explain: it’s post-punk in the vein of Joy Division, it’s brooding and bubbling like Public Image Ltd, and it’s got the bite of Siouxie Sioux. They’re both sexy and dangerous. And those elements have certainly carried over to Adore Life, and in a way that almost sounds altogether new. Opener The Answer commands attention with its machine gun beats and lets loose the beast that’s inside this record, switching tempo and moods from anger to desperation until that animal is laid to rest with its closer Mechanics. Throughout its life, this record will dance, will fall in love, and will get angry. With that, Adore Life sounds like the band progressing and evolving and finding themselves.
An album that is bound to transcend audiences. Like something is lurking underneath its surface and that fist pushing up to the surface, it sounds like nothing else I’ve heard this year.
Get your vinyl copy (the perfect format for this sinewy album) here!
