Recorded in London last winter, the four tracks on Acid Tongue’s new ‘Beautiful Disaster’ EP have a surprisingly sunny disposition and offer a brief glimpse into the mind of frontman Guy Keltner.
The title track kicks off the EP and it has a fine line in Pavement-esque slacker pop, but combines this with some of Cake’s self-depreciating humor. While the melodic guitars swirl around in a psychedelic fashion, Guy says the line ‘beautiful disaster’ with so much authority before following this up with the spiky line ‘you put your foot in your mouth, looks like a perfect fit, why don’t you swallow it?’ There’s a dark underbelly throughout the EP and this is present throughout ‘Mac and Me’ – despite the perfectly power-pop opening. Although he opens the song by stating he can’t live in this home and ‘you argue with everyone you know’, it soon makes way for something far more positive. Think the intensity of Deerhunter mixed with the lightness of touch of Real Estate and you’re halfway there.
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‘Twisted’ is altogether more introspective although it does have the (quite literally) killer line: ‘I’ll be dead before I stay’. The country-tinged song would fit at home on any DIY indie film and that’s a huge compliment. There’s also a fine line in brutal truth telling – ‘You’re born alone, you die the same’ – halfway through. The EP closes with ‘Annie Get Your Scissors’, a song that opens like a ‘60s rhythm and blues track before throwing in some dreamy soundscapes akin to The Flaming Lips. Lighter in tone than what has come before, it appears to find Guy looking towards a brighter future: ‘Please let me live’; ‘I never want to let you go’. There’s even a singalong quality to the repeated mantra of ‘I wish that I could take it back but it’s too late, now it’s time to meet my fate’.
Released by Freakout Records and with a run of red, white and blue cassettes available from Failure By Design records in the UK, Seattle’s Acid Tongue are a band you’ll want to have a taste of.
Filed under: Album review, EP review, New music, Preview Tagged: Acid Tongue, alternative music, Failure By Design, Failure By Design Records, Freakout, Freakout Records, new music, new music review, pop music, Seattle
