Entertainment Magazine

California X – California X

Posted on the 20 January 2013 by Audiocred @audiocred

Whoever said “comparisons are odious” had never tried to review this album. So embrace the odium: this band sounds very much like Dinosaur Jr. And singer and guitarist Lemmy Gurtowski’s way of playing guitar owes a lot to J. Mascis. One could have worse influences. California X   California X

Treated as a solid retro affair, California X, the Amherst, Mass. trio’s eponymous debut, is satisfying and punchy. There is chugging a-plenty, savage drumming, brilliantly damaged guitar tones, and largely unintelligible but impassioned vocals. The overall vibe is one of raw, testosterone-fueled energy, occasionally giving way to a slower and slightly softer introspection. Tracks such as “Sucker” and “Lemmy’s World” aspire to and achieve anthemic proportions. The band gives the impression (and rumor has it) that the live show would be very worthwhile.

Amid the maelstrom of pounding and slamming and riffing, there is strong melody all over the place. Both guitar and vocals contribute frequent melodic gems. And Lemmy Gurtowski’s vocal delivery is forceful but tonally pleasing. The sound quality of the album’s first track reveals an excessively cheap, scuzzy, sub-aquatic reality that soon surrenders to something much fuller and “produced”. By retaining that snippet of ghetto production, the band seems to be trying to hold onto the purity of intent that sometimes fades as bands progress. Prolonging this initial scuzz would in no way have eroded the forcefulness of the material, and may even have enhanced it.

The lyrics and their meaning take a back seat to the instrumental sound. This may have been true even if the vocal production were more deliberate and clean. It’s not that the lyrics are lacking; they’re just not emphasized or isolated in a way that brings them to prominence. And they don’t seem entirely unified with the instrumentals. Recurring lyrical themes seem to be unease, malaise, and defiance. In the charmingly odd and comparatively down-tempo “Pond Rot”, Gurtowski wants “a pond to rot in”. Perhaps he found the pond, and in its murky depths, the key to devolution that unlocks the gates to primal rock heaviness, albeit from an epoch long gone.

 California X   California X

3.5 / 5 bars

 

 


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