Weekly Release Spotlight: Autolux
Posted on 8/15/2010
Autolux
Transit Transit
[TBD]
[TBD]
For a lot of music consumers, the process of sitting down and really gorging on a new album is something of a relic. Not to harp on what every media critic of the last decade has been saying, but we don’t like “the album” anymore. We get singles, we read blogs, we make playlists. I hope that isn’t the case, though, for anyone remotely interested in Autolux’s second album, “Transit Transit.” This album deserves better.
Yes, this album took six years to release. Yes, it’s been delayed nearly two years from its original release date. Yes, it’s a “story” album. Ignore the history, though, and the you find yourself sucked into a dreamy record that touches on rock tropes (“Census,” “Audience No. 2”) as much as the soundscape-oriented approach of ambient artists like Broadcast, or even more left-field artists, like Boards of Canada (“Transit Transit,” “Spots”).
One of the common threads that has come out in advance reviews of this album is that it doesn’t “pay off,” whatever that means. The grittiness of this record combined with the noir-ish lyrics—see “Audience No. 2” for a brilliant piece of stalker-flick soundtrack—make it a rewarding listen for anyone who can summon the attention span. Not to insult the media age, but I’d hazard that our attention-deficit tendencies have reached a critical point if we can’t appreciate “Transit Transit.”
What this record really boils down to, though, is its maddening simplicity. This is the sort of album that makes musicians go nuts because of the whole “Why didn’t I think of that?” process. “Census” and “Headless Sky” are both based on frustratingly simple riffs that are processed and bit-crushed beyond mere garage-rock. In a sentence, these are songs that would sound like hell in the hands of lesser musicians.
As it is, though, “Transit Transit” is an amazingly non-pretentious and rewarding album for the dedicated listener. This music is, in a word, real. Beyond whether we wanted a new Autolux album, 2010 needs this record to remind us of how we used to consume music.
Yes, this album took six years to release. Yes, it’s been delayed nearly two years from its original release date. Yes, it’s a “story” album. Ignore the history, though, and the you find yourself sucked into a dreamy record that touches on rock tropes (“Census,” “Audience No. 2”) as much as the soundscape-oriented approach of ambient artists like Broadcast, or even more left-field artists, like Boards of Canada (“Transit Transit,” “Spots”).
One of the common threads that has come out in advance reviews of this album is that it doesn’t “pay off,” whatever that means. The grittiness of this record combined with the noir-ish lyrics—see “Audience No. 2” for a brilliant piece of stalker-flick soundtrack—make it a rewarding listen for anyone who can summon the attention span. Not to insult the media age, but I’d hazard that our attention-deficit tendencies have reached a critical point if we can’t appreciate “Transit Transit.”
What this record really boils down to, though, is its maddening simplicity. This is the sort of album that makes musicians go nuts because of the whole “Why didn’t I think of that?” process. “Census” and “Headless Sky” are both based on frustratingly simple riffs that are processed and bit-crushed beyond mere garage-rock. In a sentence, these are songs that would sound like hell in the hands of lesser musicians.
As it is, though, “Transit Transit” is an amazingly non-pretentious and rewarding album for the dedicated listener. This music is, in a word, real. Beyond whether we wanted a new Autolux album, 2010 needs this record to remind us of how we used to consume music.
Stream: Autolux - Audience No. 2