Tuesday 15 July 2008

2008 Albums: No Age - Nouns


‘Nouns’ came to me as a surprise in that I did not know anything about the band or that it was even coming out. I just happened to get it by chance really and thank God I did because it has gone on to become one of my favourites of this year thus far. Since then I’ve listened to the first album ‘Weirdo Rippers’ but that album just doesn’t do it for me and I’m of the opinion that ‘Nouns’ is the better of the two albums. A view not shared by many fans of No Age that I’ve talked to so far.

The best way to describe No Age is by saying that they make a lot of noise, but it’s extremely good noise. I wouldn’t really class No Age as shoegaze however there are some obvious influences from that genre especially My Bloody Valentine. Live No Age are said to be great to watch and when you listen to them on record you can imagine how they would be pretty special live.

How two people can make such a racket really makes me love this band and despite the noise there is some great melody behind the songs and some pretty catchy parts (‘Teen Creeps’ for example). ‘Eraser’ is another of my highlights from the album and also the first single from the album.

‘Cappo’ could easily be the next single, following on from where ‘Eraser’ and ‘Teen Creeps’ started it provides some great melody and some fantastic lyrics. ‘Sleeper Hold’ is another fantastic song from the album epitomises the No Age sound down to a tee. 'Here Should Be My Home' provides a slightly more poppier orientated sound than other songs however it is possibly my favourite song from the album, but then there are so many favourites. NME gave the album 7 out of 10 but I’d suggest that was a pretty harsh review with Pitchfork giving it a massive 9.3 which just goes to show how acclaimed this album is. It definitely surprised me, because I’ll be honest when I first listened to the album I was unsure but I let it grow on me and it has grown into a beautifully constructed piece of music.

9/10

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