It's one of those albums where it doesn't really matter what the lyrics are, actually. You sing along to whatever they seem to be and if anyone ever asked you what that line was you'd stare at them wondering why they cared. I have that same feeling with the Vampire Weekend albums. Like "Sisters on the Rocks," where the sisters on the rocks go tumbling into a falsetto delivery you can't quite make out. But damn if the four-note guitar hook doesn't wind its way deep into your gut.
"Hideous Eclipse" is low-down and dirty rock, something like the Dead Boys meeting up with the Faces, or maybe just hiring Ian McLagan (played here by Derek Lobley). The guitars whine like cars peeling out and the bass hits like a sledgehammer, held together by Althea Pajak's steady hand on the drums.
"NLTL" opens with bass featuring a hammer-on trill and a menacing strut, contrasted with Lobley wearily admitting, "I sing in a band in the local scene." The seven-note guitar line is wonderfully subtle in the chorus, stepping on the vocals abominably and so that you can't tell if it's on purpose or not and you don't really mind either way.
"Off The Twist" features a hurdy-gurdy kind of melody, played at a manic pace, like a jewelry box that was built to hold spiked leather bracelets and steel chains and the little figure that twirls around is Keith Richards. They even pull off a great finishing feedback peel.
For all the effort that so many bands put into making every note perfect, every sound perfectly produced, Metal Feathers on this album make so much seem effortless. Did they crank it out in a couple of takes and just let the notes lay where they fell? Did they craft it to sound just this way?
I don't care. I just want more of it.
CONTRAST EATS THE SLIMEY GREEN | Released by Metal Feathers | with Corpse Pose + Brenda | at Apohadion, in Portland | March 4 | metalfeathers.bandcamp.com
