Before i continue, i need to stipulate that 25-10 are not in order of preference, i find it impossible to do so.
23
Autolux
Future Perfect
"Turnstile Blues" – 5:40
"Angry Candy" – 4:45
"Subzero Fun" – 3:56
"Sugarless" – 5:22
"Blanket" – 4:49
"Great Days for the Passenger Element" – 5:20
"Robots in the Garden" – 2:05
"Here Comes Everybody" – 5:17
"Asleep at the Trigger" – 4:45
"Plantlife" – 4:12
"Capital Kind of Strain" – 5:42
I got this album four years ago now, and it took me a good 3 to fully appreciate this shimmering dream-pop gem
From beginning to end, this debut album plays like a hypnotic out-of-body experience bathed in surrealism, and its warped, ominous undertones are shaped as much by the blues as they are by the noise-pop influences of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. It is a piece that manages to both seem detached from reality yet simultaneously dragged from the deepest, most visceral confines of the heart - tinged with a melancholy that manages to never become over-indulgent.
You cannot really pick out 1 or 2 songs as highlights, its an album that needs to be heard in its entirety. Throughout the piece, Greg Edwards coaxes both meticulously crafted, fuzzy-edged feedback and whirring buzz saw sounds from his guitar; Eugene Goreshter caresses the music with heavy, rumbling bass patterns that pack the power of a detonating depth charge; and Carla Azar anchors the material by propelling it along its path with an intense but at times intentionally lumbering clatter of percussion. This triple whammy assault, combined with the collective’s dreamily detached vocals, allows the group to create a moody ambience that churns with the deliberate, slow-moving intensity of molten lava.
Granted, the formula employed isn’t entirely unique, but the manner in which it is performed screams with a hallucinogenic fury that far and away exceeds the multitude of similiar acts that have been mining the same territory with significantly inferior results. Of course, only time will tell if Autolux can move beyond the stylistic emulation of its heroes, but this is an excellent debut.