| Underground Lovers — Staring at You Staring at Me (May 5th, 2017) |
Underground Lovers — Staring at You Staring at Me (May 5th, 2017)
Ξ “The songs were originally as a homage to Melbourne with specific locations and suburbs names scattered throughout”, explains vocalist Vince Giarrusso.
Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Album release: May 5th, 2017
Record Label: Rubber Records
Genre: Indie Rock, Electronic, Shoegaze
Duration: 40:11
Tracks:
01. St. Kilda Regret 4:28
02. You Let Sunshine Pass You By 3:01
03. The Conde Nast Trap 3:30
04. The Rerun 3:56
05. Seen It All 4:26
06. It’s The Way It’s Marketed 4:03
07. Glamnesia 7:47
08. Every Sign 4:32
09. Unbearable 4:28
Review
ARUN KENDALL — APRIL 12, 2017 | SCORE: 9.2
Ξ In 2013, after a nine year hiatus, Melbourne’s legendary The Underground Lovers returned triumphantly with the album “Weekend” – listed as one of Backseat Mafia’s favourite releases for that year. Luckily, this time round we have not been kept waiting so long — four years later and they are back in business with the release of “Staring at you Staring at me”. And it’s business as usual.
Ξ Affectionately known as the Undies, The Underground Lovers are in my opinion one of the best bands coming out of the Antipodean region — both in the past and, on the evidence of their recent output, into the future. Their lush fragile sound, interwoven with a degree of muscular rawness developed at the same time yet independently of the UK shoegaze scene — they flirted briefly with the big time in the early nineties getting signed to Polydor but quit when attempts were made to fashion their sound into something more accessible and audience friendly and create MTV videos. As singer Vincent Giarrusso once told Backseat Mafia, they hated all the “fake prancing and carry on” bands have to go through in videos.
Ξ The band’s unique sound is a meld between Glenn Bennie’s raw angry guitar and lush electronica over the distinctive wandering bass lines of Maurice Argiro, all capped by the vocals of Vincent Giarrusso and Philippa Nihill who take it in turns to sing. Giarrusso’s voice is wry and observational, Nihill’s floats softly over the top.
Ξ “Staring at you Staring at me” was originally going to be called “Melbournism”, reflecting the lyrical themes of the album and as an ode to their home city.
Ξ Opening track “St Kilda Regret” gives a nod to one of the iconic Australian Football League teams and the sense of despair at always following the losing team. With Nihill’s melancholic dream~like vocals and the wall of sound guitars: I like my team but not what they’ve done to me…I’m feeling down, I’m feeling St Kilda Regret. It is a beautiful reverie that captures a snapshot of the suburb of St Kilda itself — a faded seaside den of iniquity with a heart of gold.
Ξ “You Let The Sunshine Pass You By” is classic Undies — Giarrusso’s fragile, emotive vocals capturing an uncertainty that seems to be a nod to the famously capricious Melbourne weather. The classic anthemic, haunting tone is ever present — the acoustic jangle and driving beat and the Australian colloquialisms — and then I bag you out — all creates a very personal melancholia.
Ξ To me there are two main Undies personalities — this haunting layered style that mixes the electronic with the acoustic, and then there is the more angry abrasive side with shouty vocals and unfiltered and unadorned guitar. I’ve noticed it is often the latter that become singles, and tracks three and four prove no exception.
Ξ “The Conde Nast Trap” wakes you up like a slap in the face — it is an angry and visceral blast against hypocrisy. Lyrically, the song seems to be about facades that can entice you — thinking about the other times and the promises you made — making me think about the way Melbourne is often marketed — the sophisticated world of exotic travel and Conde Nast publications.
Ξ This track is followed by “The Rerun” — another rumbling insistent slice of Undies cynicism that is undercut by sixties bubblegum interludes. Ξ http://www.backseatmafia.com/
Review:
by Jonny Nail | May 3, 2017 11:30:AM
♦ It all started in early~2016. An obscured, grainy, black~and~white ten~second clip depicted what could be a living room, soundtracked only by a guitar strum that is abruptly cut short; posted to a Facebook page entitled “Melbournism” alongside the simple message: “this is the start point for melbournism.” It was the the official, but purposefully masked, introduction to what would be Underground Lovers′ eighth studio album, their first since 2013′s Weekend.
Ξ For the majority of that year, the Melbourne sextet would document the recording process via similar mysterious videos, providing just slithers of raw takes and audio snippets, specifically aimed at “highlighting the mundane and small moments of creative practice”, as vocalist/guitarist, Vince Giarrusso, would later explain.
Ξ “Themes of organisation, infection, repetition and boredom soon set in,” Giarrusso says of the studio sessions, adding that while the album was originally set to follow this social media lead — and also be titled Melbournism — the band felt that was perhaps a little bit “pretentious and presumptive.”
Ξ “Melbourne figures strongly in all our work including Staring At You Staring At Me, but we realised we didn’t want to make the album just about that.”
Ξ Instead, wider themes emerged through the course of the year, Giarrusso explaining that “the album explores through music connection and disconnection between people in a world that is corrupt and absurd. A world where we ‘argue as we walk across the overpass’ and below us ‘the garden slips away’. There is always a sense of binary in our work: female/male, soft/hard, acoustic/electric, prosaic/poetic, pragmatic/philosophical and the unspoken tension between these differing points of view.”
Ξ Sonically, this conflict exposes itself across Staring At You Staring At Me, with the band following their regular route of rarely resting on a singular focus. Whimpers of hope creep through on bittersweet footy ode, “St. Kilda Regret”, the pulsating, upbeat pop~directness of “Conde Nast Trap” is counterpointed immediately by the fuzzy synth swamp of “The Rerun.” Similarly, the building tension of “GLamnesia” is worlds away from the straight~shot confidence of follow~up “Every Sign” and bittersweet, lyric~driven pop~ballad closer, “Unbearable”. While centrepiece and album standout, “Seen It All”, meets somewhere in the middle — fusing electric blips with acoustic strums, reflection with effortless pop~facing momentum.
Ξ https://rollingstoneaus.com/
Label: https://rubberrecords.com/
_____________________________________________________________
| Underground Lovers — Staring at You Staring at Me (May 5th, 2017) |
Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Album release: May 5th, 2017
Record Label: Rubber Records
Genre: Indie Rock, Electronic, Shoegaze
Duration: 40:11
Tracks:
01. St. Kilda Regret 4:28
02. You Let Sunshine Pass You By 3:01
03. The Conde Nast Trap 3:30
04. The Rerun 3:56
05. Seen It All 4:26
06. It’s The Way It’s Marketed 4:03
07. Glamnesia 7:47
08. Every Sign 4:32
09. Unbearable 4:28
ARUN KENDALL — APRIL 12, 2017 | SCORE: 9.2
Ξ In 2013, after a nine year hiatus, Melbourne’s legendary The Underground Lovers returned triumphantly with the album “Weekend” – listed as one of Backseat Mafia’s favourite releases for that year. Luckily, this time round we have not been kept waiting so long — four years later and they are back in business with the release of “Staring at you Staring at me”. And it’s business as usual.
Ξ Affectionately known as the Undies, The Underground Lovers are in my opinion one of the best bands coming out of the Antipodean region — both in the past and, on the evidence of their recent output, into the future. Their lush fragile sound, interwoven with a degree of muscular rawness developed at the same time yet independently of the UK shoegaze scene — they flirted briefly with the big time in the early nineties getting signed to Polydor but quit when attempts were made to fashion their sound into something more accessible and audience friendly and create MTV videos. As singer Vincent Giarrusso once told Backseat Mafia, they hated all the “fake prancing and carry on” bands have to go through in videos.
Ξ The band’s unique sound is a meld between Glenn Bennie’s raw angry guitar and lush electronica over the distinctive wandering bass lines of Maurice Argiro, all capped by the vocals of Vincent Giarrusso and Philippa Nihill who take it in turns to sing. Giarrusso’s voice is wry and observational, Nihill’s floats softly over the top.
Ξ “Staring at you Staring at me” was originally going to be called “Melbournism”, reflecting the lyrical themes of the album and as an ode to their home city.
Ξ Opening track “St Kilda Regret” gives a nod to one of the iconic Australian Football League teams and the sense of despair at always following the losing team. With Nihill’s melancholic dream~like vocals and the wall of sound guitars: I like my team but not what they’ve done to me…I’m feeling down, I’m feeling St Kilda Regret. It is a beautiful reverie that captures a snapshot of the suburb of St Kilda itself — a faded seaside den of iniquity with a heart of gold.
Ξ “You Let The Sunshine Pass You By” is classic Undies — Giarrusso’s fragile, emotive vocals capturing an uncertainty that seems to be a nod to the famously capricious Melbourne weather. The classic anthemic, haunting tone is ever present — the acoustic jangle and driving beat and the Australian colloquialisms — and then I bag you out — all creates a very personal melancholia.
Ξ To me there are two main Undies personalities — this haunting layered style that mixes the electronic with the acoustic, and then there is the more angry abrasive side with shouty vocals and unfiltered and unadorned guitar. I’ve noticed it is often the latter that become singles, and tracks three and four prove no exception.
Ξ “The Conde Nast Trap” wakes you up like a slap in the face — it is an angry and visceral blast against hypocrisy. Lyrically, the song seems to be about facades that can entice you — thinking about the other times and the promises you made — making me think about the way Melbourne is often marketed — the sophisticated world of exotic travel and Conde Nast publications.
Ξ This track is followed by “The Rerun” — another rumbling insistent slice of Undies cynicism that is undercut by sixties bubblegum interludes. Ξ http://www.backseatmafia.com/
Review:
by Jonny Nail | May 3, 2017 11:30:AM
♦ It all started in early~2016. An obscured, grainy, black~and~white ten~second clip depicted what could be a living room, soundtracked only by a guitar strum that is abruptly cut short; posted to a Facebook page entitled “Melbournism” alongside the simple message: “this is the start point for melbournism.” It was the the official, but purposefully masked, introduction to what would be Underground Lovers′ eighth studio album, their first since 2013′s Weekend.
Ξ For the majority of that year, the Melbourne sextet would document the recording process via similar mysterious videos, providing just slithers of raw takes and audio snippets, specifically aimed at “highlighting the mundane and small moments of creative practice”, as vocalist/guitarist, Vince Giarrusso, would later explain.
Ξ “Themes of organisation, infection, repetition and boredom soon set in,” Giarrusso says of the studio sessions, adding that while the album was originally set to follow this social media lead — and also be titled Melbournism — the band felt that was perhaps a little bit “pretentious and presumptive.”
Ξ “Melbourne figures strongly in all our work including Staring At You Staring At Me, but we realised we didn’t want to make the album just about that.”
Ξ Instead, wider themes emerged through the course of the year, Giarrusso explaining that “the album explores through music connection and disconnection between people in a world that is corrupt and absurd. A world where we ‘argue as we walk across the overpass’ and below us ‘the garden slips away’. There is always a sense of binary in our work: female/male, soft/hard, acoustic/electric, prosaic/poetic, pragmatic/philosophical and the unspoken tension between these differing points of view.”
Ξ Sonically, this conflict exposes itself across Staring At You Staring At Me, with the band following their regular route of rarely resting on a singular focus. Whimpers of hope creep through on bittersweet footy ode, “St. Kilda Regret”, the pulsating, upbeat pop~directness of “Conde Nast Trap” is counterpointed immediately by the fuzzy synth swamp of “The Rerun.” Similarly, the building tension of “GLamnesia” is worlds away from the straight~shot confidence of follow~up “Every Sign” and bittersweet, lyric~driven pop~ballad closer, “Unbearable”. While centrepiece and album standout, “Seen It All”, meets somewhere in the middle — fusing electric blips with acoustic strums, reflection with effortless pop~facing momentum.
Ξ https://rollingstoneaus.com/
Label: https://rubberrecords.com/
_____________________________________________________________