100 out of 5 stars - this album will easily be remembered as
one of the best releases of the last decade. At least for this listener, it’s
quality, complexity, grace, and ferocity has already pushed them beyond where
they left off with their first full length “You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine”. The
album clocks in at just over 35 minutes of sheer glory.
This is Bryan checking in for your musicpsychos.com
track-by-track review.
Cheap Talk: This
album starts off just right – cowbell, synths, crunch, and that signature Death
from Above 1979 riffage. Get ready to mosh kids!
Right On, Frankenstein!:
Glory days that we are glad never actually ended. This song brings me right
back to “You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine”. Interesting that they use the Lyric
“Same old song, just a different tune”. I feel similarly to that lyric about
this – just, you know, in a good way.
Virgins: Heavy,
might even
be the heaviest they have tried to be together. Deep chugging thunder –
paired with social questions they are known for sneaking into their catchy as
hell dance-punk with an equally catchy refrain of “Don’t ever change, Bad is
Good Enough.”
Always On:
Knowing that Jesse F. Keeler almost joined Queens of the Stone Age as a
bassist, its no surprise to hear a track that could easily be on a Queens/Kyuss
record.
Crystal Ball:
This song is pure Death From Above ferocity – refined and polished into sharp
piecing steel. Having their time apart to find themselves and find what that
means for Death From Above 1979 helped them to truly pinpoint what dto do in
the band together and they do it so well.
White Is Red: The
ballad to end all ballads. When I heard this live during their tours, I
wondered what it would sound like on record and if it would translate – and it
works even better on record. This might have a chance of eclipsing Back History
Month as everyone’s favorite down-tempo DFA1979 song. It certainly has for me.
Trainwreck 1979:
The first single released from The Physical World was not one that easily
resonated with me at first. It took many listens before I “got it”. I thought
it was too pop – and it is definitely the most mass-market accessible song on
the album – but then again Sexy Results is a lot of folk’s favorites and that
song is insanely pop. Just heavy as hell – which is the same here. Not gonna
lie – listening to it now, its definitely going to be stuck in my head again
for the next 24 hours.
Nothin’ Left:
Aside from the updated production vales that comes with experience in the
studio - this one sounds like it could have been pulled right off of “You’re a
Woman, I’m a Machine”. Sure to please old school fans and new alike, the feel
is very Little Girls
Government Trash:
Second Single caught me and kept me listening a thousand times in a row. Straight-ahead
DFA1979 Punk. They left their dancing shoes at home for this one. Pure
aggression and I love it!
Gemini: Tight
fills, tight fills, and tight fills! Chugging rhythms, chugging rhythms, and
chugging rhythms! Everything you expected it to sound like until they have the
big huge wide-open chorus! These boys get better and better with composition.
My only issue with this track is its length! I wish it was way longer!
The Physical World:
Oh, did I say that Virgins was the heaviest track? I lied. Pure doom metal on
this track – paired with house synths with auto-arpeggiators, chugging lines
and synth stabs, with vocoder verses. An almost “Mr. Crowley”-eqsue Randy
Rhoads style solo on bass to finish the album off too. Damn. This may be both
the most Death From Above 1979 sounding song and the Least Death From Above
1979 sounding song ever. It doesn’t have to make sense to be DFA – it just has
to be awesome.
And it IS.
Bry
The link to stream via iTunes can be found in the link below: