Another Mr.Quirky

　　

3 minutes into the album, my mind goes straight to The Strokes and The Moldy Peaches. It is not that Darwin Deez sounds somehow similar to them, but there are certain aesthetic elements that echo with these two combined: lo-fi sounds invaded by quirkiness.


With a new fuzz pedal, Darwin Smith starts to add these distorted and dissonant guitar noises to almost all the tracks, yet in a controlled, minimalist way that sticks to the principle of Less is More.The still powerful lo-fi rawness, carefully restricted from the potential pitfall of self-indulgent, is something growing ever rarer among upcoming indie bands. Yet Darwin Deez does it so well and creatively. (800) Human, the open track, starts with the lead singer dictating, rather then singing: “ Are you sick of not existing”. The first part of the song features heavy off-beats guitar so exciting that one can banging their heads to it.


The vocal part of the music is constantly swinging between extreme uncathy and catchy. There are certain hook lines, like “You can’t be my girl” in You Can’t Be My Girl, a textbook example of how pop music repeats its title to gain attention, which is so uncoolly mainstream that risk at ruining the whole career of the band for certain “picky listeners” Yet the rest part is totally witty and carefree in a prose poem style. The melodylessness of just throwing lyrics out everywhere is fascinating in a unique, atypical way.


Almost every song includes an invasion, accompanied by electronic meltdown and dissonant guitars chords. Cross-over in music is usual, but mostly in a vertical style with elements from both genre happening at the same time, however here they are arranged horizontally. The song Free opens with drum beats which leads to a Sonic Youth kind of guitar noise, then suddenly it dives into a total electronic melancholy smooth session. Remember those albums that make you wonder “Is it the same song?” This is a song that makes one wonder “Is it even from the same artist”


In a whole it is a chirpy cheerful work, not something you’d put a poster up and worship these musical gods every day, but nevertheless, it is fun enough to help you get through a hard day.

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