Customer Reviews

Go Forth

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

it took a while for this new LSF record to hit me, but it finally has. it's true that the production is different on this album. it even sounds a lot different than the ROME ep, in my opinion. it's something about the guitar riffs, they are further back and little less in-your-face. les savy fav definitely have a few more groove oriented things going on with this release, especially with "the slip." but all this doesn't mean they don't bring the rock and the spazz, because i think they definitely do. the only thing that i wasn't sure about were the melodies, especially the vocal melodies. they just weren't sinking in at first, but after a few spins i can't stop listening. it really is great. the arrangements are as original as ever and tim harrington's lyrics are the best they've ever been. not all the songs are complete home runs, but the only one that isn't extra bases is probably "Daily Dares," which i guess is good enough for what it is, but i could pretty much do without it. I would give some of my favorite tracks, but they keep changing, they really are all great. Buy this. If i waited a few more days to write this review, i would probably give it 5 stars.

The production values are a little different, the sound is a little different, but this is still Les Savy Fav, and in my opinion at their best!

I loved 3/5 for its raw spiky brilliance, and though I loved The Cat and the Cobra too, it was a little polished for my taste at the time. When I finally managed to track down ROME, I was blown away by the ideas on the record. The new influences more than made up for the loss of one guitar, and made for a much more exciting and vital band.

With Go Forth the band continue on this trajectory, exploring the slightly more electro influenced sound that we heard inklings of on ROME. Don't misunderstand me, this isn't Trans Am, thank god! Les Savy Fav still rock your socks off, but now there's more going on than guitar, bass, drums, vox. Tim's lyrics are the most interesting and funny in any genre of music right now, and Go Forth is FULL of great, great lines.

The combination of spiky, angular, explosive punk rock with hillarious, intelligent, eliptical lyrics and a smattering of electro thrown in for good measure makes me wanna dance and riot at the same time!!! Who wants a band to sound exactly like they sounded on their first release anyway??

First off, I love Les Savy Fav. I've watched them grow since 3/5 and even sought out their first demo from a friend that went to college with them. Their spazzy eccentricities were a great collage of what I love about indie rock and they followed in the footsteps of Brainiac, Archers of Loaf and Fugazi, in my cannon of 90's avant punk favorites. 3/5's sounded like a young excited band that was still reconciling their influences and excited to be finding their own way. Cat and the Cobra was the band's sound coming to fruition. It was indeed a very good record that stood up next to "Hissing Prigs..." or "Severe Exposure" --albums that obviously influenced the band intially. The Rome e.p. was good and while I missed Gibb's duelling second guitar I was excited by the band's artier pretensions.
This new record however tows the line in a surprisingly conventional way. Phil Ek's production has airbrushed their sound into a cotton candy goo. Tim's vocals are chorused, and reverbed, and overdubbed to a egregous degree and the absence of the second guitar has rendered their compositions into merely good uptempo pop songs. I miss the dry style of Nic Verhnes production on previous efforts.
"Reprobates Resume" and "Adoptduction" are very well written, and the rest of Go Forth isn't bad...the band certainly sounds more professional, but it seems like they've lost some momentum as a result. Here's hoping its just a phase and they go back to a more insurgent and less polished sound.

Like a lot of people do with the latest album a band releases, they critisize it by comparing it to earlier releases, or favorite releases from other bands. Fugazi had a lot of trouble with that when they released "The Argument." Everyone out there is yearning for another "Waiting Room." We already have one, and no matter how cool that bass was, we don't need another one. It's time for a new style. The situation with Go Forth is the same. It sounds completely different from 3/5 and The Cat and the Cobra, and everyone wants a repeat of the same style. They don't get one. Instead, they get well recorded songs that aren't dumped on with those killer static effects like 3/5 was. These songs are solid gold. If you don't think it can step to the early releases, you need to hear this one some more.

Les Savy Fav. When the name is heard, you think of a soft band playing very easy listening, melodic music. Oh how far off that assumption is.

While a couple songs on Go Forth are mellow, most of them are Post-Punk staples, much like their predecesors, Mission of Burma and Wire. Les Savy Fav is a band that is much more easily accessible than the two aforementioned, though. They don't really use noise and unconventional sounds quite as much as the genre normally does. I dig MoB just as much as the next guy, but really, would you use them as an introduction to the genre? (I would use Fugazi.)

Les Savy Fav have created quite a good album. It's not a masterpiece like Pink Flag or Vs., but it is really good. The bass work is prominent, the drumming makes you subconciously tap your foot, and the guitar work ties all of it together. The vocals are also deserving of praise. If you're a newbie to post-punk or alternative music, Les Savy Fav would be a good band to look into after you grow accustumed to the music. If you've been digging this type of music for a long time, you won't find anything you haven't already heard, but that doesn't undermine the album's goodness.

Maybe this is not their best work. Who cares! I like to think of this album as the perfect realization of 'pop-punk' music. Catchy songs that are fun to sing along to. Of course, with Les Savy Fav there is more to it than just that, but in no way do they subscribe to the holier-than-thou art rocker stereotype. Seeing Tim Harrington, the lead singer, strip to his briefs and give himself a wedgie on stage will make that clear to anyone.

Like I am prone to do when all the praise went to Les Savy Fav in the 90s, I avoided them. Nothing could be that good. But when I finally broke down, it proved that hype isn't all bad. These guys are really sharp! Inventive music that spikes indie rock with just right amount of new wave/post punk touches. Yes, the lyrics are obtuse but, damn, Tim delivers 'em with such conviction and power that you never doubt that they actually mean something. Sure you can point to touchstones like Sonic Youth and Fugazi but this is clearly its own thing. At the risk of showing my age, I even hear Saccharine Trust in here! What is rock but an assimilation of influences? So don't let the mention of this group or that group stop you from checking these guys out. I dock'em a half star and bring them in at four and half stars for the largely pointless bonus track which while cool the first time or two turns into a minor annoyance after that. It isn't The Strokes who is going to save rock, it's these guys. That is if it needs saving at all. Who cares? Go forth. And while you're at it snag The Cat and The Cobra. More punk than this but just as good.

I've heard Go Forth criticized as too polished and over-produced, but to me, it doesn't hold weight. I like The Cat & The Cobra as much as the next guy, but the muddle production and harsh screaming didn't set Les Savy Fav apart as much as Go Forth does.
Go Forth is Les Savy Fav at their creative peak. Tim Harrington, the best live indie rock frontman in my opinion, sounds less hoarse and more focused on Go Forth, spitting out his bizarre, absurdist lyrics with so much conviction, it's refreshing. Elsewhere, the band sounds tighter than ever, creating a more focused and smoother post-punk attack. "Tragic Monsters," "Reprobate's Resume," and "The Slip" are brilliant, plain and simple. The dark, angry tone of their previous work is set back in favor of an overall generally strange, yet danceable one, less trash and more dissonance. Whatever the case, Go Forth works wonders.
Les Savy Fav is the only band I've seen to open with the most obvious of a set-closer ("Bloom On Demand"), and that just shows their brilliance. They're willing to toy around with whatever notion you might have, and just let their art speak for itself. Go Forth retains the manic energy of their past work, despite what some might say.

And by all means, you must see this band live! You will never see a more energetic and generally insane band perform. I can't really describe the brilliance of their live performance, but let's just say that Tim Harrington is a tad nuts and might tear apart his tight t-shirt, and rub the sweat from it in your face. Or perhaps jump into the audience and dance with you. Or make you sing a line until you get it perfectly. Just see them when they come to your town.

Les Savy Fav has undergone a great progression fro 3/5 to The Cat & The Cobra to Go Forth. 3/5 was (superficially) a punk record (I know itwas so much more, but again, superficialy). Go Forth embraced their more artsy-indie side while incorperating the punk-ness (superficial! I shudder at the word "punk") and Go Forth is more or less the artsy-indie minus the (shudder) punk. My rating is more of a 4.5 stars because it was really great, but just didn't remake the magic of The Cat and The Cobra.

4.5 Stars. The opening track, "Tragic Monsters", is probably the best lead-off track of the year, up there in the top few anyway. The rest of the album, although not as good, is still very solid. Very unique feel to it. A little more treble to the guitars, a little more bassy bass. Relations: Gang of Four, Fugazi, early 80's rock, anything weird. Something else I've noticed, each song gradually gets better towards its end, so listen to the track all the way through before you hit the skip track button.