Album Review : Les Savy Fav - Root For Ruin
- Written by Pete Harris
The future existence of Les Savy Fav has been a hot topic of speculation amongst the fans since the band finally emerged from a self-imposed, two-year hiatus with 2007’s Let’s Stay Friends, which in itself was only the band’s second studio release in a six-year stretch. The same break-up rumours surfaced again during the intervening years between said release and Root For Ruin but once again Tim Harrington and co have returned and surprised the doubters.
And what better way to state your intentions and calm the potential worries of the growing legions of fans with album opener ‘Appetites’? In trademark Les Savy Fav fashion, spiky, effect laden guitars howl across the snappy three and a half minutes, accompanied by an ever present and prominent bass rumble. The song’s message isn’t a subtle one in the stomping punk shout-along chorus - “We still got our appetite! We still got our appetite!”
‘Dirty Knails’, completes the opening 1-2 punch combo, perfectly summarising how Les Savy Fav fuse punk and post-hardcore with radio friendly-ish pop, though amid the driving rock, there is still room for subtlety, exemplified by an effective drum shift from on to off beat and back again. ‘Sleepless in Silverlake’ muses on the excesses of party town, L.A., a rather overdone topic in this type of music and one which has been done many times better previously. ‘Let’s Get Out of Here’ passes up any punk and post-hardcore connections and goes for a full pop sound with a big, simple and catchy chorus. Nothing wrong with that per se but here it feels slight and unfinished.
As track five, ‘Lips ‘n’ Stuff’ begins, there’s a nagging feeling that this is a band just going through the motions. Familiarity doesn’t always breed contempt in music; some people like to hear more of the same from their favourite bands but Root For Ruin feels slightly tired, slightly undercooked, as if the band have reached a certain point in the recording process and have shrugged and said ‘Yeah, that’ll do I suppose’. ‘Lips ‘n’ Stuff’ is a good example of this. It has ‘filler’ stamped all over it and seems to go nowhere slowly, closing on an uninspiring and monotonous melody.
Of the last six tracks only ‘Poltergeist’ offers something of interest, opening with discordant stabs of guitar and a beeping bass which creates an alarm-like effect. Harrington does a fairly good Nick Cave impression in the opening, spoken lyrics and the whole track has an underlying menace that never manifests in the second half but at least offers the album some much needed variation. Elsewhere in the album’s second half, ‘High and Unhinged’ is hampered by a frustratingly slow BPM, ‘Excess Energies’ and ‘Dear Crutches’ sound overly familiar, repeating sounds and ideas from previous Fav albums and the chorus on ‘Calm Down’ is so throwaway, you wonder how it ever got out of the ‘let’s keep this one for the B-sides’ pile.
Not many bands produce music like Les Savy Fav. They have massive crossover appeal and at their best, are still capable of genuinely worthwhile nuggets of rock, but on the evidence of Root For Ruin as a whole, you have to wonder if they really do still have their appetite.