Do you think pop music is a lost cause? Listen to The High Country. Think that sixties referencing bands sound like poor imitations of former glories? Listen to The High Country. Think heavy guitar work and sing-along pop are mutually exclusive? Listen to The High Country. Think that all of the great songs have already been written? Then….well, you get the idea.
It’s as if Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (great name by the way) are trying to steer a malfunctioning time machine through contemporary music and are careering around, bouncing off of sixties pop, post-punk indie, The Paisley Underground’s retro-jangle and even scuzzed out college rock as they head into towards future possibilities. But having cool reference points isn’t enough on its own, it is how you apply them that counts and thankfully SSLYBY (to save on printer ink) know this only too well. Even though you can clearly see the musical influences they still manage to put things together in such a way that it becomes much more the sum of its parts, wonderfully unique yet oddly familiar. The songs are totally infectious, wonderfully hazy yet sometimes filled with a pulsing urgency (Step Brother City) lyrically intelligent yet concise. Or put another way, hauntological bursts of perfect future-retro pop.
The High Country is a great summation of the band to date, it captures the energy and dynamic of their live sound, it is the album that Weezer should have made but never did. In short…it’s brilliant.
