Thursday 07 October 2010
The geek shall inherit the hurt
I am absolutely awe-struck at the realization that PS I Love You‘s Meet Me at the Muster Station is the work of only two guys: Paul Saulnier on guitars and vocals and Benjamin Nelson on drums. They’re not the first two-man Canadian band limited to drums and guitars to hit the stage in the last little while, but they may very well become the definitive two-man Canadian noise band if this keeps up.
Meet Me at the Muster Station is a confident, colossal-sounding record, totally at odds with its outsiderdom lyrical themes. Saulnier’s guttural vocal delivery is packed with an emotional punch that will leave you wiping tears from your eyes and his spittle from your face. Though you may not be able to make the lyrics out clearly on every track, you don’t need to know what he’s singing to know what he’s feeling. Saulnier has been called “a cross-breed of two outsider archetypes… He’s a Black Francis-like barker… but he’s also a J Mascis-ian introvert who finds it easier to express his true feelings through his fretboard,” and that’s as apt a description as I’d likely come up with tonight. These anthems to a forgotten sect of humanity–the loner looking for a connection–are punctuated by virtuoso guitar histrionics that are just as effective a means of communicating frustration, infatuation and fanaticism and Sauliner’s visceral vocals. Nelson’s drum work keeps the pace brisk and the rhythm thunderous. I can’t for the life of me imagine how they can translate this live with just the two of them, but apparently PS I Love You live is a sight to be seen.
The album is a succinct nugget of gold. It’s 10 songs come in at just under 30 minutes, and there’s not a clunker in the bunch. With a sound rooted in 90s indie rock, this is a frenetic, fast-paced ride through today’s connected social reality, where friends really are electric, and being liked is just a click away. What it’s not is any a bandwagon-jumping sound-a-like debut that fizzles just as fast as it flames. It’s the most exhilarating debut record I’ve heard all year, guaranteeing it will be often talked about as we near year-end list time.
Meet Me at the Muster Station was released on October 5, 2010 on Paper Bag Records.
MP3: PS I Love You “Facelove”
MP3: PS I Love You “Butterflies & Boners”
Myspace: PS I Love You
Facebook: PS I Love You
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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 7th, 2010 at 8:35 am and is filed under MP3, QBiM SPiNS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
PS I Love You
