The Receiver - Decades (Stunning Models On Display,

It is with some chagrin that I have to admit that I acquired the second album by this band before listening to this one, and in the process, neglected the "common knowledge" to almost all music- namely, that more often than not, the second album proves to be the difficult one.

The focus of this, the debut, is marked in comparison to the second. The band is shown with a far simpler sound, emphasising the piano, drums and hushed vocals, whilst showing all their predilection for space. As a result, the band is occupying this interesting space where their sound is very much influenced by a number of the post-rock acts (especially, in the drumming- forefronting crashing cymbals, and beats that alternate between the delicate and the driving). In combination with the hushed vocals, the album is one that is at once calming, but insistent. If one can imagine sitting by the ocean, listening to the waves crashing, and adopting the emotions of the pensive onlooker, then one can maybe understand something of what it is like to listen to Decades. There are any number of winks to shoe-gaze but adopted from the view of the jazzy reverence encouraged by an artist such as Menomena. As a result, one hears an album that lacks the crashing violence of shoe-gaze, but with enough content, to encourage closer listening in one's slow melancholy.

Musically, the album is extremely sparse, and it is can be quite difficult to constantly maintain an awareness of what is actually going on. In other words, this is either music to be listened to, or to just allow it to wash over you, and await that occasional riff, or word, to jerk you from your revelry. Granted, it is not for those pop-lovers amongst us, as it eschews the brazen hook for a more slow-building, repetitious approach. To those amongst us that are post-rock lovers, they will know exactly what I am speaking of. The hooks tend to be more repetitious, with each element being allowed space to breath, and come to fruition slowly.

But where this album is interesting is that none of the songs cross beyond the six-minute mark, and in such a basic setting, the occasional throbbing bass line, guitar flourish or electronic addition can be used subtly, but with remarkable effectiveness. And it starts to make even more sense, if one takes the selection of songs as a single body of work, almost as if the band just took one 50 minute song, and carefully cut it into 12 selective pieces. It would be unfair to say that each song lacks character, but in such a spartan, gentle setting, the point is quite fairly made.

Decades reveals a far younger band than does Length of Arms, but one with a far purer idea as to their sound. Absent are the swaggering electronics that so dominate the second album, and as a result, they are distinctly different albums. Both display the tics of the band, and I can understand that, possibly, they felt that they should not limit their sound unnecessarily. But the spartan sound has been exchanged for something, I believe, to be a little too garish in the heavy reliance on electronics on their second album. It is slightly too great a deviation into the present the 80's revival and the so-called "New York" sound from a debut that shows a band with great promise.