A Place To Bury Strangers - Worship

A Place To Bury Strangers - You Are The One

Runs for: 4:10

Smooth track. Completely love the bassline even if it's a bit simple, plus it's got a definite feel to it.

This album has been a real grower on me. Their previous album, Exploding Head, was a pretty solid modern shoegaze/post punk-hardcore release and was a solid and noisy listen. Worship, however, is a bit different and leans more towards the post-punk genre with a sound similar to that of The Cure or Joy Division. On top of this, the snappy drum work brings me to say there’s a similarity, ironically, to the band ‘The Drums’. However, the insane amount of noise, use of electric drums and calmed vocals make this seem like a perversion of all the previous bands, merged into one final brilliant product. Kind of like a noisier, faster At The Drive-In. Maybe.

A lot of the tracks on this album are powered by the drums and a distorted (flanged?) bass guitar. The guitar comes over it doing whatever the fuck it wants and on a rare occurrence, you’ll find it adding to the song! If I’ve got one criticism here it’s that the guitar has a tendency to trail off into noise-esque style riffs, although the lower range is quite relaxed and supports the music really well. It’s more the highs and the noise segments that throw me off, along with the high chord work over the low rhythm of the bass and guitar. In my opinion if the guitar was toned down more often and bought in line with the rest of the music, the album could be… different. Maybe more conventional and approachable, but I’m of the belief that they album’s noise work is a defensive measure. I’ll explain.

I started spinning this album to a mate of mine in the car on our way to a music festival. Honestly there’s something about this album that’s very catchy and interesting but it’s veiled by the noise sections. I think what the deal here is that you can either see this album as primarily a noise album with catchy hooks, or an indie rock album with noise segments – vice versa. I think unless you’re acquainted with noise music, it’ll probably be too difficult to digest. Besides this, the electric drum work in incredibly snappy and works well with an indie medium. The vocals are mellow and deep to a point where they sound nearly spoken. The bass works perfectly with the drums and pretty much backs the album.

Besides a few instances of subtle self depreciation, a lot of the lyrical themes seem to surround interpersonal relationships and the combination of those themes with the near spoken vocals seem to create this bizarre… I guess what you could call sexiness that isn’t dissimilar to themes that Queens of the Stone Age has emulated at times. Combine this with the music itself and it gives me the best two adjectives to describe the album – sexy and deranged.

The album isn’t for everyone, but if you learn to deal with the noise, you’ve got an incredibly solid album here with unique and interesting tracks. These guys are touring Australia soon but regrettably not doing a Sydney show (at least that's what I thought when I saw the tour release when I first wrote this... turns out they're at least doing a Canberra show - GET IN!). What’s more I’m broke. They’ve said in an interview that they prefer to push their amps to a level wherein the sound itself shakes both the audience and the musicians, creating a unique feeling. Does that sound like a good time? Fucking go to the gigs!

Reccomended for: At The Drive In fans, maybe Unwound fans, Future of the Left fans and anyone who’s down for some fast paced, decent yet alternative indie rock.

A Place To Bury Strangers - Why Can't I cry Anymore

Runs for: 3:39

Pretty raw and definitely a good indicator of their musical niche. Gets me pumped yo.

 

A Place To Bury Strangers - And I'm Up

Runs for: 3:46

They picked videos for all the good songs on this album didn't they?

They've made the record pretty diverse and this song should show that with it's kinda upbeat, poppy feel.