Tapes ‘n Tapes
Walk It Off
As disgruntled as Tapes ‘n Tapes
may try to sound — stretching their voices, writing somber lyrics,
going heavy on guitars — the songs on Walk It Off, their second
full-length album, easily remain within the realm of pop music. This is
a good thing, I think. And, because of their geography, it was
unavoidable all along. It seems Tapes ‘n Tapes is the latest in the
line of music acts from Minnesota (Soul Asylum, then Semisonic, then
Mason Jennings) to sound happy and gain popularity, despite
themselves.
And so, the quartet went on to infiltrate the blogosphere, garnering
the respect of those whose opinions are Truth to hipsters everywhere.
They even got a mention on MTV’s Human Giant show, which is something
of a mainstream cult phenomenon (no longer an oxymoron). The rest is
what’s happening right now.
The big difference between Walk It Off and all their previous releases
(an album and a couple EPs) is the production. Their first CD was
recorded, reportedly, in a fairly primitive cabin in Wisconsin, and
indeed many of the tracks sound a bit grainy and raw. For Walk, they
enlisted producer David Fridmann,
who’s worked with many of the bands to which Tapes ‘n Tapes are often
compared, such as Weezer, Phantom Planet, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.
Really the sound is much cleaner, putting the correct emphases now on
the vocals, now on the instrumentation.
Their style can be described, I think, as ambient alternative rock.
All the musical elements seem to hug each other — the guitars and drums
and lyrics all sort of intertwine and mold to each other — making for
songs that are atmospheric in their impact.
Lead singer Josh Grier does that British garage band thing with his
voice, making it sort of whine and yawn at the same time. This is best
exemplified on "Conquest," a Latin-tinged track ripe with lyrics about
solitude. "When you’re next to me, the feeling’s cold," Grier croons,
but kind of happily. These are songs about heartbreak, sung with
something like rapture. And when they stick to this aesthetic, as they
do on "Le Ruse," "Headshock," and many of the songs on Walk
It Off, it totally works.
But on other tracks, they can get a bit too experimental. "Blunt" gets
blunted when it dissolves into a pile of noisy dissonance. And "The
Dirty Dirty," an ’80s-infused piece, ultimately tries too hard to sound
un-like the rest of the album. I’m not saying that a band should find
one sound they do well and just stick to it for the rest of their
careers, but change has to come naturally, and here it seems a bit
forced.
For the most part, though, their songs maintain an
upbeat-but-downtrodden character that makes for complex, satisfying
listening. Walk it Off should help build the group’s reputation, and be
ample fodder for the next round of blog posts.
Tapes ‘n Tapes will be playing this evening, April 10th, at First Avenue.