Thieves Like Us - Play Music [Album]

Sea You

August 3, 2009, 08:09 PM

Views: 381   Comments: 1

Buy Thieves Like Us - Play Music [Album] From Amazon.com

About halfway through listening to Play Music for the first time I got that weird feeling, the one that's normally reserved for the occasions when I'm about to stick my neck out on a record which everyone else has panned. I shouldn't be concerned of course, I'm as entitled to my opinion as anybody else, but nevertheless there's always that temptation to go with whatever the dudes at other music based websites thought, throw in a slightly rewritten bio based on the artists' wiki entry and then pronounce the job done. I won't insult you with any we live-in-a-free society shit, but I'm always amazed by the herd instinct which reviewers, professional or otherwise, display when forming their tablets of stone, especially as my personal hero, the passionately anti-critic Lester Bangs, would surely tell them all (were he alive today) that frankly not one of them gives a fuck about another.

Now, I freely admit that there are plenty of things wrong about both Thieves Like Us and 'Play Music', but for me it's the increasingly homogeneous nature of music writing that has far more to do with the hostility shown towards them/it than their creative shortcomings. Ok, so the hipster biography is irritating (American singer, two Swedish programmers, met in Berlin, live in Paris etc) and they've had the temerity to take their name from a classic New Order song, like that fucking matters. Also true is that their slightly avant garde take on synth-pop owes practically every note to some obvious influences (Moroder, YMO, Hot Chip and yes - Joy Division/New Order). But, [and it's a double standard that applies to at least half of Play Music to some degree or another] had the watery, but ecstatic house of 'Drugs In My Body' been released on DFA, I bet you whatever is in your wallet that your lower east side rent-a-party mob would've been hailing it genius.

Those drawn in by that relatively melodious exercise are likely to be disappointed if they're looking for ten more Xeroxes, but at least the up-tempo 'Fass' kinda stomps, assembled from shiny plastic percussion alongside Kraftwerk-pilfered beats. 'Desire' is a passable attempt at replicating the dystopic gloom of the aforementioned Joy Division/New Order, circa the pupaetion era of 'Movement'. Hitched somewhere between nostalgia and reverence, 'Lady' continues the dour euro-travelogue ambience, distorted vocals and minute long synth washes reverberating under a blanket of itchy downtempo clicks. As unappetising as this sounds, it's also Play Music's moody, sombre highlight.

So, after repeated listens I can confirm that Play Music is....not bad. Certainly not as bad as the shoal of guys who formulate their opinions based on Metacritic ratings would have you believe. And hell, if it sounds much like anything, it most resembles the left-field, naked techno of Matthew Dear's 2007 release 'Asa Breed' - and that got a warm 7.9/10 reception from those goatee strokers over at Pitchfork. Go figure.

#1 | Subscribe | Send to Friend | Print | Discipline | Report