Montreal band. They played KVRXXXXPLOSION this year! This is the kind of album I’d like to chill out to on a summer day driving to the beach with the windows down. Like low-key surf rock pop. Not super into the random (cartoon?) samples, particularly at the beginning of track 1 and 6, and the end of track 9. Feel free to skip the samples if you can. Also, I love track 9, and I highly recommend turning the volume ALL THE WAY UP for that four-second bass turn around, then turning it back down. If my life could be a bass turn around it would be that one. I wish this album was longer.
Armed with a perpetually snotty attitude, slashing guitar, and a DIY or die aesthetic, Useless Eaters are back with their eighth(?)studio LP Hypertension and it sounds like the band’s most accessible and tuneful LP to date. Where Useless Eaters songs previous relied mostly on super abrasive tones, bare bones, Wire-esque guitar riffs, and faux British accents usually under a running time of two minutes, Hypertension is much more song oriented with bandleader Seth Sutton coming out front and center with fully formed guitar figures and more meaningful lyrics. Whereas many Useless Eaters songs can feel like suffocating experiences that Sutton tries to get through as quickly as possible, there’s actually negative space on Hypertension, giving the songs room to breath instead of just repeatedly smacking you in the face (not that that’s a bad thing). Tracks like “Black Night Ultraviolet” and “Hypertension” actually groove, , and album closer “Vertical Africa” is basically Useless Eaters’ idea of guitar jam song, clocking in at 5 minutes and featuring some impressive axe slinging from Sutton. The album is packed with scrapy garage gems like “Addicted to the Blade” and “Death Gripped” that features a more mature take on Useless Eaters’ brand of hopped up punk and tracks like “Life on a Grid” and “Moody Bitch” that trod along at a slower pace but still pack a punch. On Hypertension, Useless Eaters grow up, while still maintaining the strung out sense of urgency that makes them such a compelling band.
