: ' .. .:.... . ' ' ______________ : ________ : ' \ / .. .:. .. \ / : : \ /_________ \ / . .. ... .. . : .\ / /___ /\ \ / ______________ ___ _. : \ / / \ / \ \/ / \ \ \ \ \ . ...:..\ / _______/ \/ \ ___/__ / / / / / : /\ / / \ \/ \ / / / . sH! ' / \/ / / / \ / / . ... .:.... .. . :/ _______/ / / / _______/__ ___ __ .\ / / / / / / / / / / / \ / / / / / / / / / / / . . \ /\______/ / / / / \___ / / : \/ ____ \ / / / / / : \ / \ /\____/\ / / : : ________\/ \ / \ / / : ' \ / \/ \ /\ / : . ..:.. . \ / \/ \ / \ / \ / . ' : \/ F A N G \ / : ' ____ \ / . . .. .. .:.. . \ / presents \ / . . \/ \/ : : . ..:.. , : Artist......: Girl Band : Album.......: The Talkies : : Label.......: Rough Trade .. .:.. . Genre.......: Punk : Catnr.......: RT0065CD . ' Source......: CD , ; Rip.date....: 2019-11-13 Str.date....: 2019-09-27 Quality.....: 251kbps/44.1kHz/Joint Stereo . :.. .:. Url.........: http://girlband.ie ' ' , ________ ________ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / # title time \ / \/ \/ 1. Prolix 1:49 2. Going Norway 4:13 3. Shoulderblades 6:07 4. Couch Combover 3:34 5. Aibohphobia 2:41 6. Salmon of Knowledge 6:20 7. Akineton 1:47 8. Amygdela 1:43 9. Caveat 2:47 10. Laggard 5:56 11. Prefab Castle 7:38 12. Ereignis 1:08 ______ \ / ________ Runtime 45:43 ,\ /... . . .... .... \ / ' Size 86.97 ______ :\/ ', \ / , \ / ' '... ..\ /.. .. .....:. .. .... .. . ..\ /. : Release Notes: \/ , \/ , ' ' ,: After laying dormant for nearly a half decade, Irish quartet :, : Girl Band open their new album with a self-administered : :' stethoscope test. "Prolix" isn't so much a song as a diagnosis ': ,: - for nearly two minutes, we hear nothing but frontman Dara :, : Kiely's breathing over an ominous, reverberating drone. But as : :' the track goes on, Kiely's breaths turn harder, faster, and ': ,: louder, until he's desperately gulping air like a desert roamer :, : sucking on their canteen. It's the sound of pure, visceral panic : :' - which is to say, on their first album in four years, Girl ': ,: Band are in perfect health. :, : : :' "Prolix" isn't staged - it's a document of Kiely's actual panic ': ,: attack in the studio. And coming from an artist who's made no :, : secret of his mental-health struggles - which precipitated the : :' band's extended hiatus - the track is a grim reminder that, ': ,: even though Kiely feels well enough to resume his musical :, : career, anxiety is an insidious affliction that can creep up at : :' any time without warning. But the process of airing out his ': ,: issues in the press and in past songs has made Kiely less :, : interested in exploring them through his music now - when : :' writing The Talkies, he deliberately avoided the use of the ': ,: words "I" or "you" to avoid the painful introspection they may :, : trigger. But while Girl Band are no longer explicitly talking : :' about psychosis, they're still experts at sonically ': ,: communicating how it feels, through screeching sensory assaults :, : that hit like a migraine and relentlessly pulsate like a heart : :' racing out of control. ': ,: :, : More so than 2015's Holding Hands With Jamie, The Talkies finds : :' each member functioning less like a typical musician and more ': ,: like a loose lever on a console, crashing in and dropping out of :, : the mix at random moments. Guitarist Alan Duggan has completely : :' unlearned the art of riffs and solos, using his instrument ': ,: solely for textural dissonance - the more nauseating, the :, : better. Bassist Daniel Fox deals exclusively in gut-rumbling : :' frequencies, while drummer Adam Faulkner avoids the snare like ': ,: it might be rigged with electric shocks. The result is drained :, : of any rock-band formalism, all scrap-metal clang and kick-drum : :' thump teetering on collapse. ': ,: :, : Kiely's lyrics mimic this deconstructionist approach, atomizing : :' everyday scenes and conversations into fragments. On The ': ,: Talkies, you'll hear references to pop-cultural icons like Ricki :, : Lake, Zinedine Zidane, Bert and Ernie, and the Byrds, though : :' when fed through Kiely's cut-and-paste filter, they become ': ,: disembodied figures thrown into a parade of freaks that includes :, : "mental zoo boy," "Crunchy Percy," and the "bloke with The Man : :' and The Legend shirt." Kiely clearly delights in the beautiful ': ,: absurdities of the English language: The post-apocalyptic :, : chain-gang chant "Aibohphobia" references the (not officially : :' recognized) fear of palindromes while piling them onto ': ,: prospective victims ("Cain a Maniac! Salt an Atlas! Strap on No :, : parts! Bird Rib!") with all the merciless fervor of a waterboard : :' interrogation. ': ,: :, : Kiely doesn't so much front the group as submit himself to them: : :' As "Couch Combover" builds into a seasick, distortion-soaked ': ,: stomp, it sounds like Kiely is puking and crying at the same :, : time. But later in that same song, the squall subsides to reveal : :' Kiely gently singing the track's chorus, offering a glimpse of ': ,: the pop singer trapped in a noise band's body. :, : : :' By the time we reach The Talkies' tumultuous seven-minute ': ,: climax "Prefab Castle," Girl Band's balance of composure and :, : cataclysm has tipped toward the latter. The emergency sirens are : :' ringing out, the walls are closing in, and Kiely reverts to his ': ,: panic-attack gasp. And yet as the song begins its final descent, :, : Kiely recites a mantra with unnerving calm: "When it's : :' depressed/Still in love/When it's happy/Still in love/When it's ': ,: all sad/Still in love/When it's anxious/Still in love." It may :, : not be everyone's definition of a peaceful conclusion, but after : :' all the punishment Kiely's endured over the course of this ': ,: record, it's a minor miracle he's still breathing at all. :, : ' '.. ..' .. . :........... . . . . ............: . . ______________ ______________ \ / \ / \ / Shout out to all our homies from: \ / \ / \ / \ / iPC BOSS HiT2000 1way UKi i8 RNS \ / \ / RAGEMP3 MANDY DV8 pLAN9 BUTT \ / \ / \ / \/ ____ ____ \/ \ / F A N G \ / \/ 2 0 1 9 \/