constantines - shine a light
having not heard any sub pop releases since the hey day of grunge i was intrigued when this arrived. would it be a revisit of the glory days or something far better and more interesting?
the first spin of this second lp from this canadian band, revealed a mass of guitars, hoarse vocals and little in the way of melody amongst the feedback, bold basslines and grotty guitars. so, i put the album to one side thinking that was that. then, over the course of a few weeks i found myself revisiting it when i needed a break from my hip hop mixtapes. subsequently each listen revealed hidden sonic wonders.
yes, the vocals are gruff and rough, and as mentioned elsewhere do indeed recall joe strummers non-voice (hence the appearance of the word 'passionate' in several reviews .. ), yes, the guitars are distorted and non-radio friendly but the magic is in the interplay between all the various components involved. once past the opening blast of rage and fury and feedback there are some lovely subtleties, the funky soul beats, the handclaps, the welcome use of horns and saxophones all sounding like they were recorded straight to tape by a very tight live act.
so if you want to hear some fine tunes (they take a while to hit home) and some noisy alt rock guitars then this is a breath of fresh air in a very stagnant genre in recent years.