Gorilla Manor
I know people fucking love Grizzly
Bear and Fleet Foxes and
stuff (and I’d have my fake hipster card revoked for saying
otherwise), but I’m not sold. And then every blog left of the
sun goes and compares Local Natives to them. Ick, I thought,
why would I go ahead and buy something that sounds like something
I don’t particularly dig? And then I actually heard Gorilla
Manor playing on a co-worker’s computer. Not really having
a compass when it comes to Grizzly Bear, for instance, my touchpoints
for Local Natives are more along the lines of bands like Vampire
Weekend and Ra Ra Riot. But
these guys kind of straddle that divide with much weightier
songs than the former and more complex melodies than the latter.
It's not to say they’re dead serious or anything, but they come
off as sincere and not hipster flippant and/or icy about their
subject matter (as fuzzy as it can sometimes be). Perhaps some
of the echoey production, layered group vocals and haunting
folk-like melodies add to the fleshy feel of the whole thing.
It has a bit of nostalgic pageantry that keeps itself in check
for the most part, but can, towards the end of the album, suffer
from a bit of sag and over indulgent fatigue. A dense listen
to be sure, my hometown guys are pimpin’ Silverlake like the
good Brooklyn band they could otherwise be. |
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