The New Music

Free Energy Stuck On Nothing [DFA]

If you’ve at all followed the DFA Records catalogue, then you’ll find Free Energy to be a bit of an anomaly for the label. Known for revitalizing the electronic music scene at the turn of the millennium, DFA quickly built a reputation with an in-house production sound that united house, disco, funk and punk. Acts such as The Rapture, Hot Chip, The Juan Maclean, Hercules and Love Affair, YACHT and of course, DFA co-founder James Murphy’s own LCD Soundsystem have released some of the most influential and innovative music in the last decade. And now we have Free Energy.

Free Energy are not house, disco, funk and punk. Formerly known as Hockey Night, these Philadelphians sound born to blast out of the speakers of a Flyers game during a TV timeout. They’re as pure and unfiltered as good time rock’n’roll can get these days. But more specifically they take their sound from the glam, power pop and riff rock of the ’70s, when T-Rex, Todd Rundgren and Thin Lizzy, respectively, crunched their chords and pushed just how sugary and electric rock’n’roll could get.

There are so many reference points in Free Energy’s music though, it’s almost insulting to try and evaluate the long-delayed Stuck On Nothing. “Dream City” recalls the high schooled-soda pop of obscure ‘70s band Milk ‘N’ Cookies. “Bang Pop” maximizes the impact of the drums to ensure they’ll be ready to handle the arenas and stadiums a band like Free Energy are born to fill. “Bad Stuff” is made of that cool-handed swagger Thin Lizzy sweated, with Paul Sprangers adopting a perfect facsimile of Phil Lynott’s blithe expression over the tight, punchy rhythm. And “Light Love” is bright, effortless and possibly the most bona fide power pop imagined since Jellyfish, Matthew Sweet and The Posies took a stranglehold on the subgenre at the turn of the ‘90s.

DFA has always prided itself in modernizing a throwback sound, and it’s hard to defend Free Energy’s sound as contemporary. That is all irrelevant though when it comes to the sugar high that comes with Stuck On Nothing. If only more retro rock bands could replicate ‘70s rock the way Free Energy have managed, maybe, just maybe, a band like Jet wouldn’t have been so foul-tasting.

Rating: B+

- Cam Lindsay

Check out a stream of the album here.