Archers of Loaf | All The Nation's Airports + White Trash Heroes [Deluxe Remasters]

Merge (2012)
By DAN WEISS  |  August 14, 2012
4.0 4.0 Stars

aol1

Don't let anyone who says every Pavement album is worth owning tell you that you don't need Archers of Loaf's final two albums. Til the end, these sorta-similar Carolina boys were riffier, hookier, and took their sound to farther places. To wit, the best songs on albums three and four are a creaky Waits-piano ballad ("Chumming the Oceans") and an electronic folktale that pre-dates Kid A ("White Trash Heroes"), respectively. Yet their surroundings sacrificed no rock ("Fashion Bleeds") or eyes-on-the-prize melody ("Bones of Her Hands"). Airports hilariously contains AoL's most Pavement-like song ("Gold Soundz" will turn red at "Scenic Pastures") among its Mancini-like instrumentals and suite-like segues. White Trash Heroes's goofier tangents, like the vocoded chorus of "One Slight Wrong Move," have aged surprisingly well. And if fans are wondering whether to rebuy for the incredible unreleased "Density" and "Little Jets," ask Nirvana fans if they needed "You Know You're Right."

  Topics: CD Reviews , Music, Arts, CD reviews,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY DAN WEISS
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   THE MEN | NEW MOON  |  March 06, 2013
    They're just a band, they insist; they didn't realize that a name as authoritative as the Men makes a band look, well, definitive and self-important.
  •   TORRES | TORRES  |  February 26, 2013
    Twenty-two-year-old Mackenzie Scott's homemade music floats somewhere between the cathedral jangle of 10,000 Maniacs and the buzzy churn of EMA.
  •   RE-ENDTRODUCING DJ SHADOW  |  December 07, 2012
    After a long phone conversation, the last thing I asked Josh Davis, was, if at age 40, he still had something to prove.
  •   NICKI MINAJ | PINK FRIDAY: ROMAN RELOADED: THE RE-UP  |  November 27, 2012
    Well, now it's official: the title of every record Nicki Minaj ever makes will include the title of every other record she's ever made.
  •   TITUS ANDRONICUS | LOCAL BUSINESS  |  October 18, 2012
    That intersection of punk and prog isn't new, but the prog/punk back-to-basics album is. Enter Titus Andronicus.

 See all articles by: DAN WEISS