Health – Get Color (album review)
When I heard the self-titled debut album from Health, there were tracks that cut straight to the bone and really got to me, but alongside these cuts were others that sounded a lot like a band trying to find its way. One remix album and a single later, and to my ears it sounds like the group has locked into something powerful, brutal, and beautiful all at the same time.
That aforementioned album of remixes may or may not have been the major reasoning behind their slightly new direction, but Get Color is a real grinder, with songs that sound like they’re built from pure sinew and bone and primed for dancing (or at least thrashing about at a fast rhythmic pace).
The album kicks off with “In Heat,” and it gets things going with a less than two-minute kick in the teeth that layers squeals of atonal synth, shimmering electronics, powerful drums and bass and light, almost ethereal male vocals. It’s a perfect opener in that it sets the tone for the rest of the album, but swirls with intrigue and never feels like it completely locks in for too long.
“In Heat” – Health
From there, the album gets even better. First single “Die Slow” is one of those cuts that should become a huge hit (but would probably only due so in an alternate reality) as a lumbering synth groan and more bludgeoning drums give way to rave-up choruses that incredibly catchy, while “Before Tigers” powers up again and again by veering back and forth between huge crests of guitar noise and sprays of digital haze.
For my money, though, the best song on the entire album is the blistering “We Are Water,” a four-minute burner that arrives near the end of the disc and really sounds like the group simply trying to step on the pedal a little bit more for the entirety of a song. Taking elements from all songs previous (dancey, but heavy rhythms, blasts of electronic noise and guitars and light vocals), it steps up the intensity incrementally, letting loose with a glorious blast about two-thirds of the way through that’s one of my favorite moments in music for the year so far.
“We Are Water” – Health
So yeah, it’s probably needless to say at this point that Get Color has shot up my list of favorite albums of the year so far for 2009. At 9 songs and 33 minutes in running length, it only begs for repeated listening as well.
(buy Get Color from amazon.com)
(buy Get Color from Lovepump United Records)
December 20th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
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