Release Date: April 30, 2013
Akron/Family has been chucking out albums with startling consistency since its 2005 debut, and Sub Verses is the newest addition to its arsenal. From acid-burned rock numbers to playful folk tunes, the trio seems to have tripped right into equilibrium with its sixth studio release.
Lauded with assaulting, verbose artist statements flung by lead singer Miles Singer and former label boss (and Swans’) Michael Gira, Akron/Family had plenty of not-so-concrete goals to achieve with this album (key words include “Shamanic hypno-mantras” and “Lynchian doo wop”).
While the trio don’t quite disappoint, Akron/Family seems to be fumbling through what could have become a catalog cornerstone.
A seven-minute stretch, “No-Room” kicks off the album with a lead-footed drum line and hellfire funk. The insistently free-spirited piece sets a precedent for what the folk-fancying Family has in store with the next nine tracks. Eerily distant vocals and rich percussion create an air of mysticism that runs rampant throughout the record. The track bleeds into “Way Up,” a five-minute prog guzzler that ails on for a few too many droning verses.
“Until the Morning” treads into tribal territory with trimmings of Afropop and an unshakable barrage of “ooh’s and whoo’s.” In a formula that could have produced a comically cute shadow of Akron/Family’s early experimental efforts, the West coast trio exercised some calculated restraint. The L.A. group holds its home city close to its heart with sun-bleached vocals and beachcomber melodies.
Akron/Family continues on its ambient-progressive bender with trilling strings and demented chants on “Sometimes.” But the mind-fucking fun doesn’t end there—”Holy Boredom” is a wheezing rock number that embodies what shredding shoe-gazers The War On Drugs could have been given some liquid courage and a reverb-heavy backbone.
“Samurai,” the well-paced closer, coasts through Singer’s falsetto and throws in some slide guitar for good measure. The finale, as wrenchingly pretty as it is, feels like an illogical cap to such a relentlessly off-kilter album.
A familiar criticism for the band, Akron/Family often succumbs to a tendency of sounding tightly wound—squelching its songs rather than singing them. The trio thankfully swallowed that long-craved chill pill, but not without a struggle.
Akron/Family flaunted a willingness to experiment with this new release; willingness that bordered on desperation. Metal licks glimmer with a little too much iron-pressed showiness to stomach and the rootsy folk melodies approach laziness.
As unexpected as it is comforting, Sub Verses is 10 tracks of Akron/Family in its element. Though occasionally murky and convoluted by dead-end tangents and circuital riffs, the album stands as a logical step from Akron/Family’s flower-crowned catalog.
Akron/Family – Sub Verses tracklist:
- “No-Room”
- “Way Up”
- “Until the Morning”
- “Sand Talk”
- “Sometimes I”
- “Holy Boredom”
- “Sand Time”
- “Whole World is Watching”
- “When I Was Young”
- “Samurai”
