Skip to main content

IN REVIEW: Guerilla Toss - "Famously Alive"

 

With a sound as bright and enigmatic as its cover, Guerilla Toss finds themselves on the receiving end of a fair amount of attention for their fifth album (and first for iconic indie label Sub Pop); I won't pretend I've been hip to them the entire time (when you're in your mid forties, things slip through the cracks more easily), the abridged version of Guerilla Toss' history is that they rose to underground prominence over the course of the last decade or so on the strength of their high octane live performances and their hard to pin down art-pop stylings.

Famously Alive sees a few rough edges smoothed somewhat, but there's still all manner of unpredictable thrills to be had; these songs are glossy and weird, exploring mainstream pleasures while pushing boundaries. Crucially, there's a great vibrancy at work here; these songs soar, shimmer and absolutely pulse with life, exuding positive vibes no matter how many sonic tricks are employed. There are elements of psychedelia here, such as on stunning opener Cannibal Capital, the mid-album highlight Wild Fantasy and its off-kilter immediate successor Pyramid Humm; headphones are highly recommended on these songs in particular for fullest effect.

Some of the album's biggest payoffs come from its shorter tracks, little sugar rushes that buzz, whirr and thump their way into your heart; the title track rides a punk energy into its melodic, sub-bass aided verses, while Live Exponential is gleefully odd and incredibly uplifting. This is followed by Mermaid Airplane, which features the most smile-inducing interpolation of Ring Around the Rosie since Korn entered the chat some 28 years ago. By the time the chopped and screwed acoustic guitar meets glitchcore on Excitable Girls, all bets are truly off.

Chances are, a cursory listen to Famously Alive will either pull you in or push you away within minutes of exposure; I totally understand that swelling keyboards, auto-tune and PMA aren't necessarily ingredients that make a meal of everyone's taste, and there are certain passages that lay the colour on just a little thick. Still, when the stars align here, Famously Alive hits pure pop bliss; it might not be the best album I listen to this year but, a quarter of the way through the year, I'm confident in saying it will be one of the most unique.

March 25, 2022 • Sub Pop
Highlights Cannibal Capital • Live Exponential • Wild Fantasy

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Year in Rock 2025

  Alright, I've got some explaining to do.   By now anyone who's visited this blog is well aware of how infrequently I've used this space in recent years; aside from the occasional fertile year of content, I really haven't posted all that often over the last five years or so. There are many reasons for this, which have already been outlined in previous apology posts; but, essentially, it boils down to my own laziness and the cold reality that blogs are, like Refused (again), fucking dead. So, I wouldn't hold my breath for a triumphant return to reviews, or even semi-regular posts, but:   a) I feel like Year in Rock posts have always belonged here and, even though I've experimented with different methods of presentation recently and been satisfied, the "blink and you missed it" unveiling via Facebook stories this year was perhaps ultimately a disservice to the records I lauded. After all, cramming the list into short videos isn't too far off from ju...
Post a Comment
Read more

Year in Rock 2011 Nominee: Sam Roberts Band

SAM ROBERTS BAND I Feel You From: Collider Released: May 10 Having already endured the breakout success ( Brother Down was Canada's it rock song of 2002), the tentative dabbling in the U.S. market, as is the rite of passage for all moderately successful Canuck artists (2003's debut We Were Born in a Flame was the best time to try; one of the best albums of the year, it made a small dent in the American mindset upon its release there a year later), the difficult, druggy third album (the aptly named 2005 disc Chemical City ), and the subdued creative step backward (2008's Love at the End of the World , aside from hit single Them Kids , was really kinda bland), it seems according to script that Sam Roberts would start settling in on his fourth album (and first with the band credited as equal contributors), Collider (you know, I think it was a bad idea to give me brackets). Well, as far as settling in goes, Roberts does and doesn't on Collider .  W...
Post a Comment
Read more

IN REVIEW: Rancid - "Trouble Maker"

As far as punk rock goes, it's hard to name a hotter hot streak than the trio of records Rancid cranked out between 1995 and 2000; the star making ...And Out Come the Wolves , the far-reaching Life Won't Wait and their balls-to-the-wall second self-titled album solidly positioned Rancid as leaders of the second generation of punk. It also preceded a period of slow progression, as Rancid would take eleven years to release their next three records. By the time ...Honor Is All We Know came in 2014, many fans (myself included) had to wonder whether or not this was the end of the road. Such concerns are handily dealt with on the closing track of the standard edition of their ninth record, the positively punishing This Is Not the End . Well, okay then, that's sorted. Now, what of this new record? What do we make of the use of their original logo on the cover, a logo that hasn't graced a Rancid record in 25 years? Is this a throwback to the band's heyday, a new begin...
Post a Comment
Read more