Public Strain by Women
LABEL: Jagjaguwar

Plainly stated, Women’s latest release, Public Strain, is artier and more experimental than much of what is out there right now. The album leans towards an early Sonic Youth aesthetic with its use of ambiance, noise, feedback drones and aggressive guitar attacks with thoroughly composed song structures, but it also borrows from the prog side of things with angular rhythms and odd time signatures.

Public Strain contains some other interesting juxtapositions. Ultra lo-fi sounds with clear production and apathetic vocals are paired with confident instrumental work throughout. The melody—beneath multiple layers of ambiance and noise—is placed next to more easily digestible material that features a catchy hook, or infectious guitar riff. The track “Bells” is simply a feedback drone that seems to come directly out of the bleak soundscape of “Penal Colony” which features, in spite of itself, a sweet sounding vocal melody and is followed by “China Steps” with its minimalist groove and chugging, atonal guitar. There’s certainly a lot of songwriting ground covered here. Women put their own spin on the idea of what a song can and should be.

“The vocal delivery on this album is haunting, slightly creepy and truly unsettling—and it works perfectly with the music.”

The sound, in general, of the album is consistent with what is presented on the album cover. A yellowed picture with some small, indeterminable figures are almost completely obscured by the wash of white scratches across the surface (or perhaps is it driving snow?). The grit and graininess is the perfect analogy to describe Women’s abrasive harmonies, harsh guitar tones, and angular rhythms. The echoed and reverbed vocals sound like Phil Spector got his murderous little hands all over them. Their delivery is haunting, slightly creepy and truly unsettling—and it works perfectly with the music. Underscoring this is the fact that none of these songs really have a chorus.

This album is a “grower” but it definitely grabs you as you are transported into a trance-like state while focusing on some truly intriguing and catchy elements. Of note, the uncharacteristically up-sounding final 2 minutes of the closing track “Eyesore.” The lo-fi sound of “Heat Distraction” and “China Steps” open with bass and drums recorded from what sounds like a room mic replete with the noisy squeak of the kick drum pedal. “Untogether” begins by sounding as if someone started the tape after the band had already begun to play. The opening track seems to function as an anacrusis to the proper opening of the album. “Can’t You See” is a slow burning, contemplative and nearly ambient track while “Heat Distraction”, which follows, is a driving and disorienting song.

The most abrasive, in-yer-face, and Sonic Youth-y track is the turbulent “Drag Open”. The vocals are nearly covered by the barrage of buzzing guitars, whereas “Locust Valley”, with its meandering arpeggios, sounds like the kind of 2 guitar counterpoint that Radiohead favors on their song “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi”. “Venice Lockjaw” is the closest that the band gets to writing a ballad, a slow burning track that continues to build.

Women sound like a modern band with old school production values. The reverb and sound in general is straight out of the 60′s much in the same way that Best Coast tries to capture the Phil Spector Wall of Sound. But Women isn’t nearly the same as Best Coast. There is something intriguing and sinister in their sound, something slightly creepy and disturbing about the vocals, something unsettling about the structure of the songs—and all of these things are done to perfection, leaving the listener coming back for more.


REVIEWED BY ADAM SHANLEY
ADAM’S FAVE TRACKS: ”Heat Distraction” • “Eyesore” • “Drag Open” • “Narrow With the Hall”


FREE MP3: “Narrow With The Hall” (right-click & save)
FREE MP3: “Eyesore” (right-click & save)