By Snilch
Young Prisms
Friends for Now
Kanine Records
From the first notes, this is classic shoegazer: dreamy, noisy, poppy, with bright patches amongst the clouds. A slow build early on suggests that the darkening mood will bring the fury shortly.
But that never really happens. Think a blander shade of Ride: the elements are all here, but either the heart or the killer instinct isn’t. The songs soar, but they lack that “guts of a burglar” quality that would take this album from homage to brilliance.
And that heart has a definition musically: it’s called “the rhythm section.” More specifically, it’s the lack of drums and bass throughout. When they come to the fore and provide some sonic separation (like on “Feel Fine”), you can hear this Young Prisms‘ tremendous potential; otherwise, it’s on the wrong side of the wrong My Bloody Valentine reference game (in other words, the “Isn’t Anything” side, as opposed to “Loveless”).
In the end, there are a lot of nice touches and reasons to love this band, but Friends for Now sounds like the work of a shoegazer cover band. They’ve got the right musical influences for sure, but they need to find their own voice – this is a conglomeration of a lot of others – and more confidence in their obviously competent rhythm section. If they put it all together, they will be brilliant.
Released on January 18, 2011
Track Listing
1. Friends for Now
2. If You Want to
3. Sugar
4. Eleni
5. In Your Room
6. All Day Holiday
7. Breathless
8. Feel Fine
9. If Don’t Get Much
10. Stay Awake
