Exploding Head [Vinyl]

A Place to Bury Strangers | Format: Vinyl

Product Details

• Vinyl (October 6, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mute U.S.
• ASIN: B002N1AF4U
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #56,450 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #56 in Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo-Fi > Shoegazing

Editorial Reviews

2009 sophomore album from the New York-based Alt Rock band. Exploding Head is 43 mesmerizing minutes of pain as pleasure. You'll be checking the levels on your living room stereo from the moment 'It Is Nothing' pulls everyone in earshot through a vortex of groove-locked rhythms and back-spun power chords. You'll be sucked in and blown away by the paranoid android Pop of the album's first single 'In Your Heart,' the gorgeous gate-crashing melodies of 'Keep Slipping Away,' the Chinese water torture chords of 'Lost Feeling,' the sputtering percussion of 'Everything Always Goes Wrong,' the apocalypse now effects of 'Ego Death,' the sinewy, slightly sinister overtones of the title track, and the firework finale flare-ups of 'I Lived My Life To Stand In The Shadow Of Your Heart.' This release makes up the band's most arousing recording to date. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Place To Bury Strangers - Exploding Head, October 6, 2009

By 

Andrew Vice (Plano, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Exploding Head (Audio CD)

If you're thinking about picking up this album, I sure hope you like a) Isn't Anything era My Bloody Valentine and b) some dark and brutal songs. This album definitely comes across as a mix between the aforementioned MBV and the Dark Trilogy albums by The Cure, aka Seventeen Seconds, Faith, and Pornography. The focus this time around is definitely more on songs and less on sheer noise, which frankly, is a good thing for the band. I always found it difficult to get into their debut record: for me, it really was just too dense with treble and noise for me to want to work for the delicious music hidden beneath. Exploding Head strikes a delicate balance between good songs and good distortion, which is harder to do than one might think; just look at all the abysmal bands calling themselves shoegaze these days. If you're a fan of any of the records I mentioned earlier, this album is probably for you, and if you're got a soft spot for distortion, just go ahead and sign yourself right up. Just make sure you don't have the treble EQ set too high...

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Phenomal live, October 20, 2009

By 

Nigel Planter "Nyarlathotep Jr." (Renton, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Exploding Head (Audio CD)

Heard them on KEXP live on 19 October '09 and had to sit in my parked car until their set was over. Phenomenal wall-o-sound, but definitely not background music. I recommend this as a substitute for recreational pharmaceuticals. Maybe class as 'hard shoegazer' if you need a label?

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Even better than the first, December 10, 2009

By 

bryan "snoopy" deweese (hopefully buried in hawaii) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Exploding Head (Audio CD)

If you listen to the Cure, My bloody Valentine, Joy division, bauhaus, or such related named bands then youll like this. this is not shoegaze as some people would like to label them. This is walls of sounds and emotional lyrics. They have keep their underground sound but a lil more polished this time around.
Best tracks to start off with are:
1) Keep slipping Away
2) In your heart
3) Smile when you smile