Growing Up: The Handsome Furs Get Even More Paranoid
Dan and Alexei grow into their own.
Handsome Furs
Face Control
Released on Mar 10, 2009
Dan Boeckner and Alexei Perry of Handsome Furs are not zombies. They are not vampires. They are not monsters and they are not mystical, magical, or supernatural. But from all the press that has surrounded their new record, Face Control, and the innate immediacy of their sound, you’d be hard-pressed to not be frightened of this duo.
Sure. Their previous album, Plague Park, had some issues. The sound was sometimes flat, the synth arrangements in a duet group should have been much stronger, and it felt, overall, just a touch immature. Let’s chalk all of that up to it being a pet project at the time, Dan’s involvement with Wolf Parade, and the probable wedding-planning debacles that surrounded all of Plague Park.
With another Wolf Parade album under his belt and officially-betrothed bandmates, it seems Dan and Alexei have given themselves the time to mature, and damn, does it show. I’ll note that with the press photos that preceded the album depicting an act nothing short of erotic from the duo, I was apprehensive about the entire thing. But...
Face Control flies at you. Fast. Hard. Scary. Wonderfully. Where Plague Park fell flat and relied solely upon Dan’s raging axe and pedal brilliance, this new effort passes the hat with Alexei contributing a brilliant stereo environment for every chorus of paranoia and anti-establishment that Boeckner can throttle out. Exploding off the starting line is “Legal Tender,” a near break-neck synth-led (and refined) track that isn’t afraid to let the guitars drop during the chorus and show off a Ringo Starr-esque flair for “when not to crash.”
“Talking Hotel Arbat Blues” is as close to Buddy Holly as electro-clash has come. Boeckner’s guitar is allowed more distortion than a death metal-palooza and somehow, it organically meshes with Perry’s electrified handclaps and plunking keys. It features Dylan-like lyrics like the repeated, “I don’t know what I’ve been told, every little thing’s been bought and sold” that is at once blatantly overwrought while being properly poignant for the homegrown feel of the band.
This is the most successful aspect of the Face Control. Lyrically, it’s typical Boeckner: profoundly political and sung by someone who proves that age-old idea that a good vocalist could recite their social security number and have you humming along. His grizzled voice couples perfectly with Perry’s newfound strength behind the keyboards.
The first single, “I’m Confused,” rages through at a proper dance rock pace and satiates the appetite for horror of fans of The Faint while keeping the vibe buoyant enough to play at parties that don’t necessarily involve vampires.
“All We Want, Baby, Is Everything” features a discontented play on the synthesizers that howl out for attention. Dan’s voice crackles over a riotous guitar as he howls that, “Heaven is a place we built out of stone.” This, like the whole album, is one part earned tackiness, two parts fury, a dash of anti-capitalism, and a whole lot of matured electro-rock. This is music that scares you. It’s music that you can dance to. This is horror music for a dance party inside of a burnt-out monastery where everyone is holding torches high.
View the video for "I'm Confused."
High Point
"Radio Kaliningrad" begins as a hysterical mess and evolves into a brilliant explosion that is familiar to Wolf Parade-Boeckner fans and is refined here.
Low Point
With three "atmosphere" tracks that clock in at around 90 seconds, I hesitate to say they are all justified.
Posted by Mark Steffen on Mar 17, 2009 @ 7:00 am