FEATHERED ARMS – Feathered Arms
01. Lies! Lies! Lies!
02. Vagabond Hills
03. Background Noise
04. It’s Not Me, It’s You!
05. Predator-Prey Equation
06. Reload/Recharge
07. Contagious Feelings
08. Anhedonia
09. Sold Out!
Consequence – a word like a promise, it lingers on, yet it still is in danger of getting abused from time to time. Especially in the context of art there is a sense of arbitrariness about being consequent, which is mainly because there’s always an absolut need for artists to assert their perspective, their very own view on music and what it should evoke. The alternative would end up in pure pettiness. When it comes to the debut of Swedish newcomers FEATHERED ARMS though, it’s fair enough to speak of consequent music. Yet it still somehow misses the point.
With former members from, a.o., SCRAPS OF TAPE and VAGINA SUNRISE, there is a predetermined variety within the music of FEATHERED ARMS. Most prominent, of course, there is the Riot Girl-touch of singer Katja Nielsen who pushes and bends the music’s agressiveness into something very easy to relate to – in a good way. But, as much as there is fist-in-the-air-obviousness like ‘democracy is going down the drain’, there is also a lot of unsettling and tricky menace that stems from lyrics dealing with psychological disease and failure. All of it happening in either short and kicking 90s-like anti-pop-punk (Anhedonia), or – and those are the real strong moments – in excessively meandering noise-attacks with some impressive TRAIL OF DEAD-like indie-punch in it (Reload/Recharge).
Feathered Arms is an impelling force of will – nine songs in about 31 minutes under a lot of pressure. But still there is something more to them then just being consequent. These are songs strangely acting in between focus and excess, between a clear vision and letting yourself go within it. Which is maybe the reason why FEATHERED ARMS‘ debut-record remains to be exciting even after various listening sessions. Moreover, this is a band that nearly begs to be put on stage and throw their punk and pop and distorted bass all together to see what comes out. Coherent eclecticism, a voice of anger and potentially a valve for all of it called fun: This is what FEATHERED ARMS are heading for with their debut. And that is, despite their slight lack of some more brave experiments here and there, a good point to start with. Let’s see where this is going and meanwhile get to some of these Swede’s concerts as long as they’re still destroying smaller venues.
The self-titled debut of Swedish newcomers FEATHERED ARMS is a work of impressive coherent eclecticsim and an impelling force of will – all in all a very promising starting point for this new combo.
NBHAP Rating: 3/5
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