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For most people, there’s maybe a five point completely non-descriptive spectrum for rating an album “Awesome, Good, Ok, Not-So-Good, Turd”. With Indian Jewelry’s Totaled, there probably should be a sixth super descriptive option: “What the hell” (followed either by a series of exclamation points, possibly exclamation points and question marks, just question marks, or perhaps a single solitary period).
The new full-length album by the Houston noise gang is somewhere between completely confounding, disturbing, and unlistenable yet listenable. At first listen, Totaled comes across as the loose watery beer bowel movement of a bunch of Reznor-cum-Curtis fans, particularly on “Oceans” and “Look Alive”: just industrial and clanky enough for the former, just morose and despondent for the latter. Even if that kind of mash up seems like it could be original and fresh given the right treatment, it’s not really all that exciting nowadays and sadly, Indian Jewelry doesn’t appear up to the task of bringing it to life. All too often, the weird throbbing pseudo industrial aesthetic overpowers whatever else may be going on- On “Simulation”, a side step into what probably could have been an interesting psychedelic tune turns into a plodding death march because of some sort of desire to throw every 8 bit synth sound into the mix.
Fortunately, for fans Indian Jewelry (or of whatever genre the band may be filed under), there are some really interesting moments on Totaled that are revealed upon subsequent listens. Songs like “Excessive Moonlight” and “Lapis Lazuli”, with the rougher edges apparently worn down by hazy production, ride a smoother psychedelic wave. These moments, while all too infrequent across the album, at least help explain why Indian Jewelry has continued to find success- they’re pretty good at writing, producing, and recording songs when they want to. Unfortunately, they also are pretty good at doing the exact opposite and seem infinitely more interested in that side of their art at the moment. Perhaps the next album will fall somewhere between “Awesome” and “Turd”; if not, there’s clearly always “What the hell” for Indian Jewelry.
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