If you've been searching for the right sound to accompany your all-black attire and the cloud of gloom that follows you around, look only to DC's The Antiques. Lock yourself in your room and listen to "Closed Curtains". The dark baritone of the male vocals, followed by the scathing and piercing female part, gets magnified by the accompanying organ, making for a sadistic breakup song to cry alone under the sheets to with the lights off and the stereo cranked to 11. Where the organ reaches into the internal depths of despair, the reverb of the guitar in "Tied To Nowhere" provides a reprieve. Still despondent, but less "the sky is falling" and more "let's tear it down."
Not one to be victimized throughout, singer Greg Svitil stands up on "You're Everything I Don't Need" and walks away from someone who is "everything I don't need and nothing I can use." The bright and jangly guitar of "You're An Act That Can't Be Followed" brightly underscores the story of a would-be suitor who throws himself at the object of his desire, only to be ignored. This is followed by the murky "Brown Balloons", charged by drums and bass and phased guitars. Echo and reverb effect dilute the vocals of this almost-love song.
Stepping wildly outside the confines of gloom-pop on "Bedsit Bones", the guitars funk up a hook reminiscent of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall Pt. II", opening up the blinds just a bit and letting the sunshine in.
Sewn With Stitches is deeply cynical, rife with self-loathing, forlorn, and absolutely quaking with unrequited love. Fortunately for the Antiques, if found that love would be their demise. They'll have to go on suffering to bring more of their shoegazing, hopeless-yet-glimmering pop.
Free MP3 Download: The Antiques - "Closed Curtains"
1 comment:
Ha! This is also in my stack of records to review.
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