Exploded Drawing

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Exploded Drawing album cover
Album Information
EDITOR'S PICK

Total Tracks: 16   Total Length: 58:48

eMusic Review 0

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Yancey Strickler

eMusic Contributor

04.22.11
Polvo, Exploded Drawing
Label: Touch And Go

Once blown off as Sonic Youth copycats (which is true of Celebrate the New Dark Age and "Bridesmaid Blues" from this album, though both are still great), Polvo came to be embraced as math-rock royalty with the excellent Today's Active Lifestyles. But to these ears, it's Exploded Drawing that ranks as the band's best album. While Ash Bowie and Dave Brylawski's vocals can take some getting used to (they're very '90s indie rock), they're secondary to the arrangements, which stick to regimented but improbable structures swerving wildly via key- and time-changes. ("Crumbling Down" illustrates the style wonderfully.)

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HEY

wesleysandblom

Put the last 2 tracks up. This album is really good but nobody should buy it incomplete.

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Genius

outmoder

Fast Canoe is classic Polvo, while Feather of Forgiveness is just stunning. The last track really needs to be here too, as it's wonderful.

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Last song?

NGWR

The claim Polvo was generally slagged off in their day as a Sonic Youth ripoff is bullshit. Today's Active Lifestyles was released BEFORE Celebrate the New Dark Age. More important than the amateurish, inaccurate review: where's the closing track? It's the best part of the album. Cripes.

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they were special

sorryBummerlin

I can't see a rock video without thinking of "The Purple Bear" -- not so great a Polvo song (gimme "Gemini Cusp") but always a chuckle.

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Favorite Polvo...last track essential!

Zhimbo

This is my favorite Polvo album - primarily song-based as opposed to jam-based, with a sprawling "White Album" feel to it as the band experiments with different sounds and styles. I'm especially fond of "Feather of Forgiveness" and "The Purple Bear". As I write this, the final track "When Will You Die For The Last Time In My Dreams" is not available for download. The astonishing epic closing song is essential, and I hope that track 16 is made available ASAP!

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They Say All Music Guide

Polvo’s Exploded Drawing takes listeners on a sonic journey that encompasses nearly every kind of sound that a guitar has been known to make, and a few that might be unheard of until now. The group has worked on their intricate, changeable sound since the early ’90s, but on Exploded Drawing, it shows they’ve worked on their songwriting as well. The great majority of this hour-plus-long album is as listenable as it is inventive, particularly on the alternately shimmery and explosive “Bridesmaid Blues” and the angular “Feather of Forgiveness.” “Light of the Moon” sounds like a twisted cowboy ballad, and “Missing Receipts” is an eerie, echoing instrumental that exemplifies Polvo’s experimental guitar play. Polvo doesn’t forget to include the punk, as “High-Wire Moves” and “Taste of Your Mind” testify, but blues, Eastern music, folk, country, and ambient music also find their way into Exploded Drawing, giving each song a twisting, unpredictable quality. Though the album’s length can lose some listeners, if the mood is right for arty guitar music, then Polvo’s Exploded Drawing is the right choice. – Heather Phares

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