Austin Sound

“Band-to-watch” seems to be the go-to description of Model UN, whose EP Tiger Physics we have on review here today. With a full-length planned this summer, and an increasingly visible presence in the Austin music scene, these “up-n-comin” monikers may well be warranted, but that shouldn’t discount the successes that the quartet has already laid down on the Tiger Physics EP. While other EPs of its type often flounder under the weight of a new band trying to “find their sound,” Tiger Physics, in five short songs, puts on display the well-honed edge of Model UN. In fact, the band’s fevered pop sheen even brings to mind a bit of Austin’s other EP wunderband, Voxtrot.

The EP opens with perfection, and that means tambourines. The shimmer of clinging metal rings as the kick drum ushers in finely polished clean-tone guitars, a soft beckoning into the world of Model UN. Arthur Mills’ vocals are hushed as he sings: “The ghost is a little bit presumptuous / wants to scratch me off the waiting list / wants to act as if I don’t exist / you forget, you forget…” Even when wavering into “rock out” mode, feet stomping on distortion pedals and hands chugging through power chords, the band keep subdued the energy clearly driving the entire song, ultimately leaving any listener salivating, if not clamoring, for more.

The creation of suspense is a check-off-the-list for any good album, and “Some Ghost” easily satisfies that requirement, but suspense needs a release, and the lack of a properly timed release may be the EP’s only drawback. Each song that follows, to some degree, is as successful on its own as “Some Ghost.” The lyrics to “Down The River” are near comical in their brutally honest, and sometimes sarcastic, take on relationships. “Throw your ex-wife down the river, and I’ll come home for good / you might want to forgive her, but I don’t think you should,” sings Mills in a sarcastic tone, but under the cover of a full spread of raging guitars and clashing cymbals, more honest lyrics like “Don’t tell me it’s working when you’re halfway out the door” come to bear.

Indeed, each song is as much a success as the last, but the tracking seems to be the work of the iTunes shuffle button, blowing its load with Track 1 and arranging randomly another four independently amazing tracks behind it. It makes one wish the EP were more like… more like an album. Oh they’re recording one of those right now? Well, problem solved.

Tiger Physics is in every way an EP, which although the songs on it are unnervingly good, can’t itself stand in place of a true album. What makes the EP so worthwhile, and exciting in the realm of future releases, is that it reads more like a post-album “bonus” EP, like a collection of equally masterful songs that didn’t quite make the album, than a quick jotting down of ideas before hitting the real grind of album writing. In any case, Model UN have set the bar extremely high, both for their future selves and any one using the label “EP” for anything but their best work.

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