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...according to our Brian on Wed 02 Jul, 2008.
Great album on Melodic by Arms too! The opener's summat a little like Richard Hawley singing in GBV, this great euphoric crashing surge of meshed college rock jangle & feedback with great hooks and a dreamy rich male vocal. A healthy tinge of Jeff Buckley to his timbre the singer is proper fine, the music is also pretty cool, quite folky in parts with a windswept Americana vibe. It's also one of those fine records that sounds like an old friend on 3rd listen, the songs built from the most popular & appealing base materials and then recorded in a fashion that is sympathetic and a tiny bit frayed, a tad underpolished, leaving these comforting songs natural & unfussy. There's some really nagging hooks and familiar strains that remind you of a lot of great records made over the last 10-15 years from both sides of the Atlantic but I cannae place one single riff or chord change or vocal inflection. 'Kids Aflame' is well worth yer pennies!Kids Aflame is the debut full-length by Arms, aka 26-year-old Brooklynite Todd Goldstein. Inspired by a love of "sad/weird/insular genius types" like Neil Young, Stephin Merritt, and David Byrne, Arms’ music cloaks catchy tunes in fuzzy, echo-laden production and Goldstein’s melodramatic, crooned vocals.
A true one-man band, Goldstein recorded Kids Aflame over a period of three years in various apartments across Brooklyn, playing all the instruments himself, save the occasional drum, sax, bass and keyboard part.
That hazy, late-night mood runs deep in the record’s 13 tracks, which range from the shoegaze-y gallop of the lead-off single "Whirring" to the lilting ukulele of the title track; from the country-inflected "Sad, Sad, Sad" to the soaring "Shitty Little Disco" and the noise-drenched "The Frozen Lake".
Elsewhere, "Jon The Escalator" wears its Smiths influence on its sleeve, and "Pocket" blends dark lyrics with brassy, Aztec Camera-style pop. And although Kids Aflame is a lo-fi album -and unashamedly so -it’s also one with a surprise around every corner, be it a drop-dead catchy hook or a total change of pace, as in Eyeball’s campfire chorus and bouzouki melodies.
lArms is one of three musical projects that Goldstein’s currently involved in (with more on the horizon); the others being lo-fi duo The Sea & The Gulls and hotly tipped band Harlem Shakes. As Goldstein’s solo project, though, Arms is closest to his heart, and an outlet for his most personal and idiosyncratic material.
TRACKLISTING: 1. Sabretooth Typist 2. Whirring 3. Construction 4. Kids Aflame 5. Tiger Tamer 6. Sad, Sad, Sad 7. Shitty Little Disco 8. The Frozen Lake 9. Fall 10. John The Escalator 11. Eyeball 12. Pocket 13. Ana M
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