Handsome Furs - Face Control [Album]

Sub Pop

April 2, 2009, 02:49 AM

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Dan Boeckner and Alexei Perry have unleashed a mild creature of an album by the name of Face Control. The second attempt at musical diversity for Boeckner (from his two other projects: Wolf Parade and Atlas Stragetic) sees him working once again with his wife, Perry, in their indie-electro band, Handsome Furs, with the help of Wolf Parade's Arlen Thompson on the mixing board. Drawing inspiration from discriminating Russian club bouncers who admit patrons based on 'face value', the derived title sounds suiting for an album which attempts to be stylistically unique, howling wearied cries from a caustic society that’s in love with itself.

Face Control is like a sonic blast to your senses, all synth-pop in shrieking lines of smutty guitars and booming engineered electronics, crafting a peristaltic sound with an assault that’s immediate and unapologetic. The opener, "Legal Tender" bounces off to a dancey, infectious beat that's right on the money, while "Officer of Hearts" is a groovy, sensual seduction that feels like tangy-flavoured candy to the ears. A line from "Talking Hotel Arbat Blues", 'I don't know but I've been told every little thing has been bought & sold' summarizes the album’s disposition, driven home by Boeckner’s world-shredding voice, despondently wailing urban desolation and disorientation in today’s post-modern landscape. But there’s still optimism in this moper, evinced in the feel-good upper, "All We Want, Baby, Is Everything" (which is also responsible for the delayed release of the album due to legal issues of having a similiar sounding New Order song title) and "Nyet Spasiba" with a motif-conflicting line that goes, ‘Here's my hand and a head full of buzzing howl. The future is sleek’ - you’ll be left wondering whether he’s trying to artfully juxtapose these extremities as a face of a muddled reality, or is he just an exemplary schizo-product of his own perceived theories.

Face Control, on face value (pun intended), is a strong follow-up to their 2007 release, Plague Park, and even with a few formulaic spots (I failed to see the purpose of listing "(White City)" and "(Passport Kontrol)" on the album, other than the apparent coolness of having bracketed song titles), it still qualifies as another small, understated accomplishment for the Montreal couple.

That being said, there’s a part of me wishing for more, solely in thematic expansiveness which would have boosted the album’s lasting value. It's like a technically sound piece of art with bold, ambitious strokes but with a missing, solid centerpiece. So however big its experimentation cannons are, the record is low on its ex positional ammunition; but with a bark this resounding, Face Control's less impressive bite should be well made up for.

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