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Puzzles Like You

by

Mojave 3

 
Puzzles Like You
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Average: 4.5 (75 ratings)

Indie-pop pioneers relax and have some fun for a change.

  • We Say...

    Review by J. Edward Keyes

    Clearly uptight about having been a member of shoegaze pioneers Slowdive, Neil Halstead has forged a career second act on the principle that songs should be serene and not heard. The first four Mojave 3 records were aggressively quiet affairs, as bleached as mausoleums and almost as airless. Polite company called them country songs, but they were too frail to survive a night on the prairie. Though they managed the occasional breakthrough (see "Return to Sender"), the big reveal was always filmed with a Vaselined lens.

    On Puzzles Like You, Mojave 3 finally stop faking the folk and relax enough to make the best C-86 record they can. Rocketing out of the gate with the blissful, Chills-y "Truck Driving Man," Mojave 3 present a summary statement on a moment in pop history, swooping up the Field Mice and the Pastels and — OK, fine, Nick Drake — in the same gigantic net. The tempos are quicker, the melodies more assured and pronounced and the guitars are muddy and scuffed. Whereas the group's past ballads sounded gauzy to the point of mummification, the slower songs on Puzzles, like the gentle "Most Days" and "Big Star Baby," are like icicles melting: gradual, graceful and fantastically sad.

    The album peaks early with "Breaking the Ice," a revved-up springtime spark-shooter that builds and builds and builds until its final rush of sound. This is Puzzles in a nutshell — straight-on euphoria, distilled and mainlined. Make no mistake: there's nothing revelatory here. It's just the sound of an aging band turning up, loosening up and having a bit of fun. Any problem with that?

  • They Say...

    Review by Tim Sendra, All Music Guide

    A longtime fan of Mojave 3 has come to expect certain things from the band's albums -- things like relaxed vocals, wispy ballads, soft textures, and gentle soothing songs. There may have been the occasional uptempo tune with pronounced guitars, but this was the exception to the laid-back rule. Things have changed on Puzzles Like You. Fully nine of the 12 songs clock in at midtempo or above, and some might even be considered rockers! Chiming guitars, tinny organs and vintage synths, double-time drums, briskly shaken tambourines, and almost bawdy-sounding pianos all pop up in one spot or another to give complacent fans a jolt of energy. Songs like "Truck Driving Man," "Just a Boy," "Breaking the Ice," and "Puzzles Like You" sound like the work of a totally different, almost frisky band. Whether fans of the group will be satisfied with the three (admittedly) lovely ballads is a legitimate question; they may find the record too cheery and loose for their liking. Or they may hear the usual sweet vocal harmonies from Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell (who has an increased presence on the album) and feel comforted. They may realize that, regardless of tempo, these are some of the strongest, most involving songs the band has ever recorded. They might come to regard the record as a masterful distillation of all their influences from country-rock to '60s pop to dusty Americana. They may notice that the record sounds like a progression for the group and not a total leap sideways. If they can come to any one of these conclusions, it's likely they will fall in love with Puzzles Like You, since it is one of the best guitar pop records of 2006 or any other recent year. It is always nice when a band keeps churning out perfectly fine records that all sound alike; for a band to create something as fine and accomplished as this so long into its career is almost miraculous.

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