Iceage - You're Nothing  - One Blogger's Opinion

In the past I have been pretty hard on the band Iceage I actually never heard of them before everyone started putting the Danish band’s debut album The New Brigade on their “Best of 2011” lists. Then when I gave the album a listen I was shocked to hear how unlistenable it was.  I thought they sounded like The Cure’s Robert Smith singing in the shower while bassist Simon Gallup, really needing to get used to the facilities, repeatedly bangs his bass guitar on the door (“White Rune”, “The New Brigade” and “Total Drench”). I could not figure out how this album was lauded by so many when I thought songs like “Eyes” and “Count Me In” made New Brigade sound like the worst train wreck in Denmark's history since the Vigerslev train wreck of 1919.

 

Soon I would be eating crow, or how they say it in Iceage’s native Danish, Jeg ville være at spise krage

 

Sometime during the fall of 2012, after countless attempts to like New Brigade, it finally clicked. I still thought they sounded like “The Cure: The Shower Demos” but somehow it worked. And that train did eventually get back on track. Especially the triumphant album closer “You’re Blessed”.

 

Now when I found out Iceage was going to release their new album You’re Nothing on Matador Records I was “spændt” for its February release.

My Review:

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The first twenty seconds into “Ecstasy” may scare you that the band has gone shoegazer on us. Then the drums kick in and Iceage announces they are back but when singer Elias sings “Pressure, pressure. Oh god no”, you can’t help to wonder if the band is up to the challenge of following up such a well-revered record as New Brigade. “Coalition” (Track 2), faster and catchier than anything the band had recorded before, proves they are.

 

 After a mysterious one-and-a-half-minute track, the very Bauhaus-esque “Burning Hand” comes on. There are even some My Bloody Valentine fly-buzzing guitars during the chorus. You can really hear the desperation in singer Elias’s voice, especially when toward the end of the song he asks, “Do you hear me?”.

 

“In Haze” is where the album really takes off. Thick and almost melodic guitars guide the strong drunken vocals as they knock down everything in their path as the song moves forward. Those ringing guitars return for “Wounded Hearts” (Track 8) and the drunken vocals show their face again on the pounding and very urgent “It Might Hit First” (Track 9)

 

 Now I have heard Iceage compared to so many different bands from Christian Death to Black Flag and The Necros to Killing Joke and Wire (who doesn’t get compared to Wire these days) but I have not seen anyone else compare them to the band which to me is an obvious influence: The Cure. “Morals” (track 6), although a bit harsher, could just as easily fit alongside  “The Funeral Party” on The Cure’s Faith album,

 

Very Black Metal photo

The (pre-Big Country band) Scottish band The Skids is another band I am surprised no one has ever brought up. Listen to The Skids “Scared to Death” album (available on iTunes and Spotify) and you will see exactly where I am coming from.

 Just two albums and an EP in, Iceage is still working out their own sound. You can still hear pretty well where their ideas and influences for some of these songs are coming from. If you ever wondered what Mike Skinner’s band The Streets would have sounded like if they were a punk band instead of a hip-hop band, “Everything Drifts” (Track 7) will give you a pretty good idea. The chorus sounds like it’s taken right out of that band’s Original Pirate Material album. On “Awake” the band goes almost all out indie guitar rock. The guitars even verge into Dinosaur Jr territory.

 

Honestly, how many bands are there out there that had their own sound worked out at such a young age?

 

The album closes with “You're Nothing” where they take all the aspects of what made the other 11 songs stand out and have them come crashing down on top of each other all around you. This, along with “In Haze” and “Wounded Heart”, is my favorite song on the record.

 

Although I like to keep this blog positive, there are two things just slightly bringing down my overall enthusiasm for You're Nothing 

 

Upcoming New York City shows

The first is I can’t figure out why the band would want to place a minute-and-a-half industrial factory-sounding “Interlude” just three songs into the album. It totally breaks up the continuity of the album. I could understand if there were one or two more interludes on the album equal distance apart on the record but just the one sounds awkward and out of place.

 The second is that Iceage chose to sing track 10 in it’s their native Danish language. “Rodfæstet”, which I think translates to “Deep Seated”, and it almost sounds like it does not belong on the album. The song is to smooth and zippy. It’s as if the band loses their uncomfortable edge because they feel more secure singing in their first language. The uncomfortable edge it what makes me like the band.

 

Again I apologize to guys in Iceage for once saying they sound like The Stone Roses after their van drove off a cliff. You’re Nothing proves this band will continue to be a “twinge” in the punk/noise world.

 

(All Danish translations are brought to you by Google)