101. Autolux - Future Perfect (2004)
Track Listing:
01. Turnstile Blues
02. Angry Candy
03. Subzero Fun
04. Sugarless
05. Blanket
06. Great Day For the Passenger Element
07. Robots in the Garden
08. Here Comes Everybody
09. Asleep At the Trigger
10. Plantlife
11. Capital Kind of Strain
Genre: Shoegaze/ Indie Rock/Experimental Rock
I'm not going to try and pretend like I'm a longtime Autolux fan because that would be a lie. They are a relatively new find for me, but the impact they have had on my musical life in the past three months has been incredibly large.
Autolux is an indie rock band consisting of Greg Edwards (guitar/vocals), Carla Azar (drums/vocals), and Eugene Goreshter (bass/vocals). Their sound is a soothing blend of monotonous bass line undertones mixed with the quiet/ loud dynamics popularized by indie rock legends the Pixies. The band does enjoy employing some of the strange noise rock elements from another legendary band Sonic Youth, as evidenced on the track "Sugarless".
On a lyrical level it takes some deciphering and having the lyric sheets out in front of you, but they are definitely worth a closer examination. All three members do create an interesting contrast to many indie rock bands who use multiple vocals to harmonize the sound, but Autolux seems to section off certain parts for one of the other vocalist which helps make each member feeling like they're contributing more to the song and gives them a bigger sense of team work.
The production on the album is quite adequate, with each member's instrument being quite audible and easy to tell apart, but that's about it. The album is great for the music that is on it, but other than a producer doing their job properly, they didn't really add anything to the album as a whole. Perhaps it is because I am still a neonate in the world of production, but nothing about the production on this album stood out as impressive, all that did was the musicianship.
Together all three musicians create a very vibrant and deeply layered sound that only becomes more engrossing the more and more you listen to it. This is a headphones album in order to catch all the sounds, that sometimes get drowned out by cymbal crashes or when the guitar switches to overdrive. If you're a fan of indie rock, Failure (the band), or newer shoegaze albums then this is definitely an album worth looking up.