No Age – 'An Object' review
No Age’s fourth LP, their first in three years, starts and ends quietly, but does pretty much everything else capable of a guitar/drums two-piece in between. That includes exhilarating, balls-out no-wave punk (C’mon Stimmung), woozy, looping space rock (My Hands, Birch & Steel) and, most impressively, on central track An Impression, a mournful bossa nova laced with delicately detailed feedback textures and the best melody the band have ever written.
However, these highlights are too frequently interspersed with route-one garage blare and occasionally painful singing, which makes An Object an uneven listen at best. From the album’s title downwards, there’s a clear aim for this record to be taken as a single piece, and its gentle bookends, towering centrepiece and dedication to textural consistency across multiple genres manage that expertly. Unfortunately, its artistic goals don’t quite mask its deficiencies in more traditional areas of songwriting and singing, making it a record that’s easier to admire than love.
6/10
