Music Banter - Viet Cong

Quote:

Originally Posted by bulbasaur (Post 1541215)

i dig this group more than women so far. unconcious melody was one of my favorite tracks of 2013.

i think the album is impressive overall. even the video for continental shelf is top notch. definitely one of my favorites of 2015 up to this point, maybe even my favorite

Agreed on all points. I liked Women, but found most of their albums not that accessible save for a few great tracks on each. I still enjoyed the albums on occasion, but always went back to those same few songs.

"Unconscious Melody" was also one of my favorites from Cassette.

In a way, I admit there's a similar balance of abstract material and really great tunes going on with Viet Cong. The cassette had the aforementioned track, "Oxygen Feed", and "Static Wall" which were all really great, "Throw It Away" was a great intro leading up to those really great ones, and then some more chaotic material to finish it off. I expected the album to be a bit more refined, perhaps the two extremes blending pretty well throughout. What's weird is that it's kind of like a flip of the cassette - with the less accessible material at the front and the tracks getting better as you go along - culminating in the 10+ minute "Death" which does a great job of blending the two personalities.

I really like the album. Unfortunately for me I had played "Bunker Buster" and "Continental Shelf" pretty extensively prior to the album's release. I knew the ladder was on the album, but not the former. I'm still trying to really get into the first 3 tracks that I feel are essentially warm-ups to Bunker Buster and the rest. So what's left are "Silhouettes" and "Death", as far as songs that are great and new to me.

The album is short but that might be a good thing. Though as I mentioned the first 3 songs feel like a build-up to the great material, I could go for another 10 or so minutes after "Death".

All that said, I really love the band's sound and feel they bring to the table a lot of what I feel is missing in some post-punk, even the original titles. The infectious songs really strike a chord with me, they're truly perfect to my ears.