‘For She & Him are something of a guilty pleasure. They perhaps shouldn’t be, such are their indie credentials, but that’s exactly what they are. There’s no two ways about it; no cause for discussion: they’re parodical as they are overwhelmingly pleasant, and the rather unimaginatively titled Volume 3 is no exception to the rule.’
Dots & Dashes review the third from the inimitable tweestrels.
‘Having previously Gone Feral, minimal techno mastermind James Holden here reels in the primordiality in favour of a highly effectual synthetic thrust entitled Renata. Lifted from forthcoming sophomore The Inheritors, it’s the sort of giddying Friday dark fare that threatens to run away with itself with ever increasing frequency, jarring arpeggi scrambling over splashes of jazzy cymbal and gleaming flashes of extempore freeform. If only we could now expedite time similarly so that we might hear the LP in its entirety…’
The Inheritors is expected June 17th on Holden’s very own Border Community label.
‘It’s what we’re all up to more or less all of the time whether incidental or concerted, though rarely do we stumble upon something anywhere near as majestic as this from former Emeralds ambientalist Mark McGuire. A sneak peep into a forthcoming LP entitled Along the Way, In Search of the Miraculous marries Asiatic twinkles with insistent nudges of guitar in what is one of the most harmonious sonic matrimonies since Air’s Alone In Kyoto. And although alive to the intricate simplicities of his previous, it’s the incorporation of albeit unintelligible lyrics for which this one will forever be remembered as they billow about softened, solar susurrus like scintillating golden dust in an outer atmosphere. “All that we know is only learned/ All that they know, was only learned/ All that we’ve been told was decided long ago/ So all I know for sure, is there must be something more…”’
‘Alas, we’re still awaiting enlightenment as to what collaborations between Josh Homme’s ineffably badass desert-rock bruisers Queens of the Stone Age and the likes of Elton John and Jake Shears might sound like, although by ‘eck did Brussels get it lucky this week as the distortion junkies swung by radio station StuBru to air a couple newbies from forthcoming sixth studio full-length …Like Clockwork, along with a customary acoustic take on No One Knows. Up first, we’ve I Sat By The Ocean – a languid, roily work redolent of both Coffee and TV and Little Sister, and indeed it’s not too dissimilar to much of the hi-fi stomp to have been trampled into Era Vulgaris start through finish.
Although it’s the moody, bluesy If I Had A Tail which flickers with greatest promise, as Homme’s deadpan snarl glints in squiggly riffs which skid right off the fretboard. ”Get your hands dirty; roll up them sleeves/ Brainwashed, or true believers/ Buy flash cars; diamond rings / Expensive holes to bury things” he seethes, a cactaceous barb in his ass by the sounds of it and with society in a significantly more perilous state of disrepair than it was some seven years ago when QOTSA were last heard from, we’re in need of harsh smiting oh great smiter!’
…Like Clockwork is out June 3rd on Matador Records.
