1001 Albums Summary

Minimalist, moody, utterly beautiful. Like a serene feeling while drifting below the sea. Romy's breathy vocal grounds it firmly in the grim pop of the upcoming 2010s and it's rogue's gallery of dark goth inspired idols like Lorde, Lana and later Billie. The guitars are taken from the goth and post punk of the early 80s. It's The Cure, and Joy Division, but with more meditative melodies. The sound of your first serious relationship falling apart, and all of the quiet apocalypse that such an experience can render onto you. As for the songs independently, the first half of the album is near perfect, with my personal highlight being 'Islands'. 'Fantasy' acts as an interlude into side b, which gets off to a dreamy start with 'Shelter'. This song washed over me without much of an impression, but the album gets back on track with 'Basic Space', which starts off in a stilted way, but by the time the drums and guitar get going, the groove makes everything fall into place.

This might be controversial, but I think the new wave influence on the Texas trio is an excellent move. The blues is still here, but synths present here round out the bottom end, fattening the bass and giving the sound an edge. All around this is a muscular set of Southern Rock tracks held together with a tight production and even tighter playing. New Wave ultimately was a reinvigorated take on the youth music of the 50s and early 60s so everything old is new again? I can't say this album converted me into a ZZ Top fan. I had my fill of 70s classic rock sounds by virtue of growing up in small town America. It's something I've learned to appreciate but has little bearing on my life beyond representing my parents and their tastes. To the album's credit, I think it's a very strong grouping of tracks. The reputation I've heard about the 80s is many of the major releases that decade in rock feature some major hits on the first side, followed by a rapidly decreasing quality of songwriting in the second half (So, 1984, Tattoo You, Slippery When Wet, etc) This album thankfully does not have that problem. I'm going to rate this album based on how good I feel it is, but my personal tastes would have me give it closer to a 3.5/5