(Slumberland)
Though it's fair to say that Terry Malts were one of the very, very few guitar bands to come across my desk when I was a paid critic that I really believed in, I can't say I'm heartbroken or surprised that their follow-up to the splendid debut Killing Time is a bit pedestrian and joyless. The worst thing I can really say about it is that it sounds like a set of b-sides from the same recording sessions, and the best thing is that it sounds like the San Francisco semi-thrashers and punk traditionalists are at least open to trying new things in the studio; you couldn't mistake the labored apathy of this LP for the well-practiced whatever of that one. Unfortunately, that's not a high compliment.
I doubt it's the band's fault. The trio's curious interplay is still just as interesting and slightly off-kilter as it was on the first go-round: Phil Benson splits time between rumbling basslines and charmingly tossed-off, deadpan vocals in the unmistakable vein of Joey Ramone with a touch more self-aware arrogance. The ringing, distorted guitar of Corey Cunningham, who writes most of the music, is the real voice of the band, and it's no wonder that the cleverly titled Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere (the album's second best joke behind the song title "Comfortably Dumb") emphasizes guitar so heavily. Unfortunately, that comes at the expense of songs this time, and maybe just because there weren't a lot of top-caliber new ones ready in time. Slumberland put out the band's sophomore record barely a year after their first; these are the economics of a rock band in 2013. You stop swimming and generating product for half a second and you drown.
In the process, though, a young band like this at such a crucial moment can lose sight of the elements that make them really distinctive. Beyond the Ramones, Diodes and Dickies comparisons, Killing Time had the brashness, abandon and joyous crassness of the Replacements. The riffs, only part of the story then, are now louder than ever but less clean and spontaneous, and the intelligently goofy lyrics and singing are either less intelligent and goofy or buried in an overly busy mix, or both. The initial hook for many discovering Killing Time last year was its periodic wandering into a sunny, lilting charm that maintained full-throttle pace, as on the instant classic "Tumble Down." We get wisps of that when "Two Faces" takes off on its ooooh bridge, but generally its vocals are muddy and distant, and sadly the signal to noise ratio is balanced no more persuasively elsewhere.
If Killing Time was a punk record with pop and new wave elements, this is certainly dead-square in the post-punk mold, but aside from announcing "death don't scare me," they don't really take to these stylistics. The band sounds tired and the songs are rote; Benson's digging his own grave when he sings about not being able to wake up on "Life's a Dream." Enthusiasm appears in strange places, like the half-baked "They're Feeding" and the extremely repetitive rocker "Walking Without You." Hooks are few and far between here, coming after a record overflowing with them. Of all the selections here, "Well Adjusted," Bangles riff and all, most closely resembles something from Killing Time, although "So Serious" is essentially a less clever rewrite of "No Good for You" and "No Tomorrow" puts a weird optimistic spin on the Malts' heretofore familiar style.
That's the strange thing. On a record split halfway between imitations of Killing Time and weak, half-finished attempts at moving in a new direction, the band doesn't really sound at home in either mode of communication. One assumes this is because they haven't really had time to fully develop these ideas yet, and that's a pity. I'd be perfectly happy with another record very similar to the last one, or with one that runs with the melodic sophistication of "I Was Not There," the shoegaze influence of "Comfortably Dumb" or the gentle charm of "Buy Buy Baby," but this mishmash just seems like a disappointing overextension. I hope a band with this much potential wit and imagination isn't already getting discouraged, though it's kind of hard to blame them.
[SEE ALSO:]
Killing Time (2012)
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