Album Review: Savages - Silence Yourself
- Written by David Beech
Many bands these days claim to have a message, an ethos, ideas that they feel need a bigger platform. Fewer bands purport their ideologies with a dogmatic conviction that Tyler Durdon would be proud of; and fewer still claim to awaken a heightened sentience within listeners; evoking almost primal instincts. Apart from Savages. Hailing from London, the post-punk quartet make music that is painfully delicate and optimistically woeful.
Over the course of their début album Silence Yourself the band reveal a penchant for tempestuous dynamics: from the Fugazi-infused abrasion of album opener 'Shut Up' to the emotive and soulful closer 'Marshal Dear'. Despite the band claiming to be “minimalist pop-punk”, there's more in common here with Joy Divison than Jimmy Eat World. There's a certain discordant aesthetic throughout the whole of the album that's as jarring as it is as exciting whilst a fondness for blending their chords in to an intangible mishmash will appeal to fans of My Bloody Valentine.
A caustic fuzz drips from songs such as 'Strife' and 'Hit Me' as they unrelentingly shred towards their respective conclusions while a cleaner less frenetic feel asserts itself over other track. Though there's a distinct differing in dynamics throughout Silence Yourself there's a fluidity to that catches you off guard. Not once does a track seem out of place, and despite the erratic nature of the songs occasional bi-polar tendencies of individual tracks, the album feels like a natural progression.
Track five 'Waiting for A Sign' is a particular highlight and sees a haunting atmosphere draped with vocals evocative of Jefferson Airplane era Grace Slick and is accompanied by disconcerting and off kilter string notes in the background that serve only to add to the already dark and portentous atmosphere whilst the aforementioned 'Marshall Dear' closes the album with an impassioned elegance that never quite shakes the senses of forebodingness. The final minute of the track features a melancholic jazz section which fits the mood slightly and asserts the albums fluidity until the very end.
“This album is to be played loud in the foreground” asserts the closing to line to Savages Manifesto #2 found on their website and it's easy to why. In it's entirety Silence Yourself is an emotive and expressive exploratory look at yourself. Not a band for clichés they eschew the typical feminine sentiments associated with girl bands and they write about “violence, domestic things and having a masculine view on feminine issues”. There's a reason Savages are one of the most hotly tipped bands for 2013 and with Silence Yourself the buzz is only going to get louder.
Silence Yourself is out on May 6 and available from amazon