eMusic

Start Your Trial

Go Forth

by

Les Savy Fav

 
  • Pick
Go Forth
view larger image View Larger

Rate it!

Avg: 4.0 (171 ratings)

  • We Say...

    There are two schools of Les Savy Fav fans: those who crush on singer Tim Harrington's charismatic flourishes and distinctive lyrics equally narrative and surreal, and those crushed off after seeing Harrington's pale, naked torso after yet another Jim Morrison imitation at one of the band's concerts. Les Savy Fav's music takes decidedly different forms in the studio and on stage: on their albums, the manic new-wave tracks never quite congeal, yet live, these songs burst with energy as the Brooklyn-via-Rhode Island quartet erupts while the crowd, titillated, ducks for cover.

    Instead, Les Savy Fav's albums belong to their ballads, and Go Forth features the sultriest of the slow stuff. "One to Three" sways softly to Seth Jabber's teetering guitar line and drummer Gibb Slife's slowed disco thwaps. Reminiscent of early Built to Spill, its delicacy is nerve-wracking — like watching Of Mice and Men's Lenny handling your newborn. "Adopduction" tells the story of a kidnapped man whose family low-balls the ransom offer, and who subsequently falls in love with his kidnappers, only to have his affection go unrequited. The epic story gets an appropriately epic arrangement, with peaks, valleys and soaring "ooohs" that, in concert, the indie girls in the audience enthusiastically mimic, as if Les Savy Fav themselves had saved them from an appearance on the back of a milk carton.

  • They Say...

    A few albums into their career, Les Savy Fav continue refining their idiosyncrasies and coming to realize their trademark sound. Past albums were often eclectic in terms of style, the band not sure if it wanted to head in more of a punk or emo direction -- or perhaps a hybrid of the two. If anything though, Go Forth is consistent in terms of style. Les Savy Fav have come to terms with who they want to be and explore that identity over the course of the album's 11 songs, which are similar in tone yet different in approach. There's a particular irony with their music, though. On the one hand, Les Savy Fav have never sounded this sure of themselves and their songs have never been this crafted -- surely positive qualities. Yet, on the other hand, the ultimate refined sound that the band has realized sounds inescapably like Fugazi -- the guitar tones, the riffs, the singing, the songwriting, the rhythm section, and even the lyrics -- even more than on past albums. No one's going to argue that Fugazi wasn't an incredibly influential band -- the influence of the group was mammoth, particular on Les Savy Fav's generation. Yet, while it's a flattering comparison, Les Savy Fav have somewhat stacked the cards against themselves by modeling their sound so closely on Fugazi's. Ideally, it's best to avoid comparisons and take Go Forth for what it is: another impressive album for Les Savy Fav. At this point they have worked through their formative stage, and prove themselves capable of delivering a solid album with diverse songwriting and a consistent style. And even if that style sounds derivative and summons the inevitable Dischord comparisons, it's impressive nonetheless.

  • You Say...

    Write a Review

    I would like to say...

    Artist: Les Savy Fav

    Album: Go Forth

    Review Title: (maximum 50 characters)

    Your Review: (maximum 1,000 characters)

    Cancel

    Please keep your comments to the recordings themselves, and be courteous and respectful. Thanks! For further info, read our Community Guidelines.

The indie iTunes — Hardcore music fans are migrating to eMusic, the iTunes Music Store's cheaper, cooler cousin.


Rolling Stone
Start Your Trial

Recently Viewed

© 1998-2009 eMusic.com Inc. eMusic and the eMusic logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks in the USA or other countries. All rights reserved.

All Music Guide © 1992 - 2009 All Media Guide, LLC
Portions of content provided by All Music Guide, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC

Facebook®, YouTube, Flickr™ and Wikipedia® are registered trademarks of their respective owners, Facebook Inc., Google, Inc., Yahoo! Inc. and Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Neither Facebook Inc., Google, Inc., Yahoo! Inc. nor Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. are partners or sponsors of eMusic. eMusic uses the Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Wikipedia API but is not endorsed or certified by Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Wikipedia. eMusic does not pre-screen, monitor, endorse nor assume any liability for websites, contents, products, services or claims made by Facebook, YouTube, Flickr™ and Wikipedia®.