So Nurses [MySpace] categorizes themselves on MySpace as a “Zouk / Western Swing / Visual” band, which is more or less a fancy way of saying “party music.” Sure.
Their latest album, Apple’s Acre sucks you in at the beginning with the bare bones of the ivories on “Technicolor”, pairing them with a jiving beat and clear vocals, but after this you morph into Harvey Dent: put the mob behind bars or stop the Joker.
It’s the vocals that really confuse me. They sound like a Beach Boys clone that secretly want to be Gnarls Barkley set against pretty, shoegaze melodies. There are notes that are quick, harsh and seemingly unnecessary (like a balloon popping – see “Man at Arms”). Gritty vocals can be great (like with the Rural Alberta Advantage, Smashing Pumpkins, et.al.) and voices that are nasally, strained and cracking can pair really well with, well, pretty much anything, but there has to be some sort of “leveling out”. This is a nonstop biplane show, zipping and buzzing its way through “Skip to my Lou”, echo-filled tunes.
It’s hard to take it in one sitting. Soften up the voice a tad, stop trying to be Bon Iver, and we’re saving Gotham, people and, maybe delivering a more palatable record in the process.
[mp3] Nurses – “Caterpillar Playground”
Last 5 posts by Holly L. Perry
- Make Love, Not War - The (Subjective) Bedroom Mixtape - January 18th, 2010
- Yo Gabba Gabba - Music Is Awesome Review - December 9th, 2009
- Go Stuff Yourself - The Thanksgiving Mixtape - November 26th, 2009
- Noah and the Whale - The First Days of Spring Review - November 6th, 2009
- Volcano Choir - Unmap Review - October 15th, 2009
3 comments for “Nurses – Apple’s Acre Review”
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Holly Perry’s latest review sucks you in at the beginning with a sassy critique of joke myspace categories, but after this you morph into…[cue record scratch sound effect] someone who wonders how using a bizarrely stale, hopelessly awkward series of Dark Knight metaphors is supposed to tell me anything about psychedelic pop music?
Yep, psychedelic music is highly “unnecessary,” to use Perry’s word. It’s inexpedient, impractical – and I’ll take it over the slick, snore-inducing rock of a band like Maximo Park any day. So yes, they probably won’t be making it on to one of Ms. Perry’s workout tapes (see “how to bench press like a hipster”), but I won’t shed a tear over their exclusion from the opportunity to rub shoulders with the venerable Yellowcard and Foo Fighters.
Now if only I could think of an oh-so snarky Brokeback Mountain reference…
Can I ask a question? Why does everyone who disagrees with a review here mention Maximo (fucking) Park? We’ve never said anything about liking or reviewing them, did we?
Drawing your comment to a close by making a thinly-veiled reference to perceived homophobia due to a lack of interest in “inexpedient, impractical” attempts at psychedelia is just lame. Lame lame lame.
Another great review about the Nurses and their new album is one that I read on Indiepit.com
http://blog.indiepit.com/2009/07/28/nurses-nurses-in-rhythm/