Album Review: No Age - Losing Feeling
October 6th, 2009
No Age Losing Feeling [Sub Pop]
While their background is L.A.’s DIY punk underground, both 2007’s Weirdo Rippers and last year’s Nouns validated No Age as a band without borders. Losing Feeling may just be an EP to tide us over until next year, but it delivers on two levels: satisfying the need to hear new material and furthering the band’s seemingly unlimited scope.
The title track may resemble the more textured side of Weirdo Rippers, but it’s even more set on building layers than virtually anything they’ve done so far. More dream pop than no-fi, Randy Randall’s guitar just flutters with melody and intermingling parts, and then eventually Dean Spunt kicks it into overdrive with his kit.
They ascend even deeper into dreamier areas with “Genie,” a drum-free track that finds Randall singing wistfully alongside his overdriven guitars.
The amorphous instrumental “Aim At The Airport” delves even deeper into the experimental arc they’ve always maintained, using loops and samples of rolling waves to help foster an ambient side.
It comes as a surprise then that Losing Feeling ends with the most “No Age sounding” cut. “You’re A Target” dives right into the band’s most familiar feeling: the thrashing and scrawling guitars, the crashing cymbals, the punk-driven melodies.
And yet, while the first three-quarters of this four-song EP is them expanding, it’s the last quarter that assures us they aren’t ditching what made them so bracing in the first place.
No Age sound comfortable playing the field with this unrestrictive approach. If only more bands could find space like this to work in without trying so hard. Because for Randall and Spunt it all sounds so effortless.
Rating: A
- Cam Lindsay
Tags: Losing Feeling, No Age
Posted on Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 at 11:28 am by Cam and is filed under Reviews, The New Music.
