2014-07-20
French Style Furs is Nathan Willett and Matt Maust from Cold War Kids, with Nathan Warketin from the band, We Barbarians. (Also included are guests on percussion, vocals, and horns.) This L.A. band wrote the lyrics for debut, Is Exotic Bait, based on the poetry of 20th century monk, Thomas Merton. The album starts out promising with distorted vocals and fuzzy guitar on opener "Three Friends". It rocks even more with sludgy bass adding to the mix on second track, "All the Way Down". At this point I am liking it. However, on track three, "The World in My Bloodstream", things get a little sketchy. As the worst track on the album, it introduces keys and heartfelt lyrics to make a pop song like any other. The rest of the disc, while still sometimes offering garage rock overtones is still hit or miss until ninth track, the rocker "Christmas Card" redeems it. Rebecca Ruth
MY MORNING JACKET
Evil Urges
TRAVIS
Ode to J. Smith
PEOPLE GET READY
Physiques
Young The Giant
Home Of The Stranger
BLUEPRINT
Adventures in Counter-Culture
THE LAST SHADOW PUPPETS
The Age of the Understatement
The opinions expressed in these reviews are those of the individual volunteers that submitted the article and do not necessarily reflect the views of WYCE or GRCMC; nor its staff, donors, or affiliates.