+/- - Let's Build a Fire
Rating
RIYL
Yo La TengoThe Decemberists
Postal Service
Minus the Bear
Tracklist
1. Let's Build a Fire2. Fadeout
3. Steal the Blueprints
4. Important Thing Is to Love
5. Thrown into the Fire
6. Summer Dress 2 (Iodine)
7. Ignoring All the Detours
8. Profession
9. One Day You'll Be There
10. This Is All (I Have Left)
11. Leap Year
12. Time and Space
13. For You
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Having released a handful of discs since their start in 2001, each with growing success, its with open arms that +/-‘s latest full length, Let’s Build A Fire, is received. Like past releases, this album’s instrumentation alone swells with the notion of time well spent and a brief pass over the lyrical content enforces this idea further and makes it apparent that +/- is a notch above their peers.
Drawing influences from groups like Yo La Tengo and R.E.M., it’s no wonder the group pulls off such a deep and rich sound so well, with a maturity that few of their peers are capable of. Throughout the album’s thirteen tracks the band cover a vast amount of territory, both musically and emotionally, seemingly carrying the listener throughout the album, not letting any one direction take control of the album. The progression and build up throughout each song is also rather notable. Tracks like “Fadeout” and “Summer Dress 2 (Iodine)” have uplifting and hopeful qualities both lyrically and musically, while on the other end of the spectrum the simplicity of tracks like “The Important Thing is To Love” and “Ignoring All the Detours” helps enrich a somber quality which contrasts with the aforementioned, but doesn’t conflict with them.
Despite differences in each track's individual approach, one thing all the songs encompass is solid production that sees the fusion of a traditional instrumental approach and an electronic one. The band flawlessly brings these elements together, and does so creatively throughout the album’s fifty minute running time. The band also serves up a beautiful duet mid-album in the form of “Thrown Into the Fire”. The addition of the female vocalist on this track really strengthens its contrast from the rest of the disc, and in turn the track serves as one of the album’s highlights despite its simplicity, in retrospect, with the rest of the album’s content.
On Let’s Build a Fire +/- throw both acoustic and electric guitar, melodies, piano, vast electronic instrumentation, and a wealth of other instruments into a melting pot to create a disc which tops their entire back catalog. The group’s prior work was strong, but the material on this album raises the bar, not just for the band, but for an entire genre. Creative indie rock is not dead, and Let’s Build a Fire is a testament to that statement.
--Josh Tabbia
Comments
Dallas, Texas
Waterloo, Ontario
Top Ten of 2009 http://www.decoymusic.com/users/3747/top_tens/2009
Waterloo, Ontario
Top Ten of 2009 http://www.decoymusic.com/users/3747/top_tens/2009
Fort Bragg, CA
Dallas, Texas
I need to check out the older stuff then. I started with this album.
Fort Bragg, CA
Dallas, Texas
I just listened to them. I'm going to buy now.