Release Date: June 28, 2011
Handsome Furs has always been a hit-or-miss band. Both of their earlier albums contained a few hidden gems, but suffered from a substantially large amount of filler songs. On their third album, Sound Kapital, Handsome Furs radically change their dynamic by tossing aside their guitars and fully embracing ’80s dance music synthesizers, and while the new sound is exciting and well executed, it doesn’t really fix their much larger problem: there is still just way too much filler.
The best thing about Sound Kapital is the way that the Furs managed to fuse ’80s dance music with their earlier styles. Fans of the band need not worry, as the album overall remains very rough, just like their earlier work. Dan Boeckner (who is better recognized as one of Wolf Parade’s vocalists), provides sporadic yelping that, coupled with a healthy dose of background fuzz, keeps the synths from feeling too cheesy or dated. The band’s new emphasis on synthesizers is a noticeable change, but it succeeds because it feels like a fairly natural evolution. Their previous album, Face Control, had a lot of electronic sounds, and it’s easy to see how they built up to the style that they implement here.
Normally, an album powered entirely by machine would not work for this kind of band, but because of their “rough edges,” the album’s new style becomes something fun, unique, and perhaps more importantly, something that is recognizably from the Handsome Furs.
This evolution is easily the most exciting thing happening on Sound Kapital, and it will be very interesting to see how they develop from this point in the future.
Unfortunately, song quality is still pretty iffy. During the more upbeat songs, like the catchy “Bury Me Standing” or the multilayered political anthem “Serve the People,” Sound Kapital is at its best, but many of the others are easily forgettable. A decent number of Sound Kapital’s tracks don’t really go anywhere, don’t really try anything new and don’t leave any sort of lasting impression when finished. And while it may have seemed like a good source of emotional resonance and power, the band probably shouldn’t have made every single track on the album an anthem; nearly every song ends with Boeckner repeatedly shouting an important line, and the ones that don’t are guaranteed to have this sort of “rally” at some point. It’s a shame that every song on the album is not as good as the fantastic “Serve the People,” which starts quietly but builds to a fevered emotional climax that is easily the high point of the record—proof that the band can write a powerful anthem if they put their minds to it.
Unfortunately, they aren’t and Handsome Furs still sound like a side-project: there are a few songs on Sound Kapital that the band clearly put effort and time into perfecting, but there are even more that are thrown in, unpolished and unexciting. If the band really buckles down and puts time and love into every song, they could become a force to be reckoned with. For now, consider grabbing “Bury Me Standing” and give “Serve the People” a listen, but you can most likely pass on the album proper and not miss too much.
Handsome Furs – Sound Kapital Tracklist:
- “When I Get Back”
- “Damage”
- “Bury Me Standing”
- “Memories of the Future”
- “Save the People”
- “What About Us”
- “Repatriated”
- “Cheap Music”
- “No Feelings”
