Listen up!
From The Comas to The Kingsbury Manx, the Triangle's produced some great blissed-out pop. North Elementary now belongs in the same Advanced Placement class: Like frontman John Harrison's old band, The Comas, North Elementary traffics in spacey noise-pop shimmer that competes with a shambling '60s folk-psych undercurrent. Their third album, Not For Everyone, Just for You, often feels like The Jesus & Mary Chain's Reid Brothers meeting the Flaming Lips in the Left Banke, gracefully balancing hooky jangle and textured drift. While 2004's Lose Your Favorite Things was a fine album, it wasn't nearly as polished or crafted as this, getting by as it did as much on spunk as smarts. At 13 songs, it sprawled compared to the tightly knit nine of their latest, whose sequencing accentuates the profile of each song.
North Elementary puts its best foot forward with "Decade Styling," Harrison's breathy croon contemplating impermanence amid a wash of icy synths and big guitar hooks glinting against a starlit backdrop. It's mostly irresistible. "Golden Tigers," the creamy third track, boasts a silky shine that relies on a jangling folk riff, watercolor keyboard wash, and peals of pedal steel to create a gauzy daydream interrupted by a distortion-drenched guitar break. Six-minute album centerpiece "Ones in Love" follows. The drums are distant snaps echoing from the mid-'80s, though the song luxuriates in Britpop torpor before blowing up after the verse, vaguely reminiscent of Radiohead's "Creep." The scope and ambition are impressive, far outstripping anything North Elementary's done to date.
However, it may be that they're best with the succinct pop-rockers, which follow the ballads one after the other across the disc. While more meditative, the last half of the album's almost as strong as its start, highlighted by the sugary swirl of "Speed of Lies" and the coolly droning thrum of "I'm Not Foolin'." Though occasionally too langorous for daylight hours, it's among the best Triangle pop records of the decade.
North Elementary's John Harrison plays Fuse solo Tuesday, April 14. The band plays The Pinhook with The Sames Friday, April 17, at 10 p.m., and has a seven-inch release show with Wembley and Pistolero at Local 506 Thursday, April 23, at 9 p.m.
- To create paragraphs in your comment, type <p> at the start of a paragraph and </p> at the end of each paragraph.
- To create bold text, type <b>bolded text</b> (please note the closing tag, </b>).
- To create italicized text, type <i>italicized text</i> (please note the closing tag, </i>).
- Proper web addresses will automatically become links.
Latest in Record Review
-
Various artists' Waste of Time: A Tribute to Paint Fumes
Friday & Saturday at Slim's
- May 15, 2013
-
Bevel Summers' The Cards
The Carrboro band's first full-length, a magpie collection featuring more voices, new instruments and a wider palette of influences, is united by a keen sense of songcraft.
- May 8, 2013
-
LiLa's IV
LiLa's IV has some soul packed in the places you'd least expect.
- Apr 24, 2013
- More »
More by Chris Parker
-
The populist plea bargain of Rush
Rush were never as baroque or symphonic as bigger art rock icons like King Crimson or ELP, perhaps because they weren't trying to turn classical music into rock music. They simply bedazzled hard rock.
- May 1, 2013
-
Deep Chatham's Flood
A string trio at the time of their 2011 debut, Deep Chatham leaps forward with this follow-up, a significantly more nuanced effort opened up by the addition of a keyboard and accordion player.
- Mar 27, 2013
- More »
