Handsome Furs – Face Control Review
Dan Boeckner’s real problem I think is more about his affiliation with one of my favourite bands, Wolf Parade. He’s consistently lumped with Spencer Krug as a measuring stick, and that just isn’t fair. The Handsome Furs are a two piece band with Boeckner’s wife (Alexei Perry – let’s not forget that her contribution to the band is very important) and they just use a synthersizer/drum machine with Dan’s guitar work.
The Handsome Furs were actually the first band I saw live, opening for the Arcade Fire. They were good but unspectacular in my fuzzy memory, just like their debut album Plague Park. I dug a few songs off that record but one of the weaknesses of Plague Park was that, it refused to be spectacular. Lyrically and musically it felt like it was satisfied with itself and never really progressed into something spectacular – thus it could be considered boring which some critics did.
On Face Control, the band has made huge strides on their sound. On this record, it doesn’t feel like it’s hindered by just have two members. It’s more ambitious and lyrically it takes a step forward in all directions. The major difference for me, is the quality of the best tracks of the album (which Plague Park did produce quite a lot of). They surpass the level easily and the best tracks never become stale that I can listen to it for 50-100 times. It’s pretty evident as a whole in Dan Boeckner’s vocals, the variation in music and lyrically. Boeckner no longer has the plague but rather has so much more control on this record like he does on his songs with Wolf Parade. There’s just so much more range with the vocals, musically it could still be danceable but now there’s more variation and they aren’t afraid to change the beat or add in a raging guitar riff. It’s just much more powerful I find.
Some portions of the album DO fall back on old habits, becoming boring at times. Those moments are rare but it still did hurt parts of the album such as flow and my ultimate liking of this album as a whole. However, I have to say that some songs are just way too good to ignore. Basically, the Handsome Furs have taken a leap forward on this record and while it’s not there yet in terms of “masterpiece” or best of the year nods…it’s a decent record to find solid singles on.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Thanks to a friend, I found out that “Nyet Spasiba” translates into “No Thank You”. Face Control is a solid record at the end of the day. Talking Hotel Arbat Blues and Nyet Spasiba are my favourite tracks while, I’d probably do away with at least the instrumental “(Passport Kontrol)”.
Nyet Spasiba by The Handsome Furs
Talking Hotel Arbat Blues by The Handsome Furs
Tags: album
