Battles – Gloss Drop
After their frontman Tyondai Braxton quit in August last year, it was unknown whether we'd ever hear from Battles again, but luckily we have. And oh, how lucky we are! Their new album Gloss Drop is the perfect balance I was hoping for in new material from the experi-completely-mental New Yorkers: it's obviously lacking the pitch-bent vocals that Braxton brought, but it opened doors for guest vocals from Gary Numan and three other people you've probably never heard of.
But it's not an all-new Battles sound. There are a lot of aspects that hold true to their critically-acclaimed debut LP Mirrored: the stupidly oversized guitar amp rigs (I saw them on Friday - ask me if you're interested in guitar amp rigs), the acceptable cheesy keyboard riffs, and the effects plugins that make their guitars sound like dinosaurs are all still very much there.
Having listened to both Mirrored and Gloss Drop several times in the last 24 hours, I'm not sure I can pick a favourite yet; they are dissimilar enough (and brilliant enough) to make that a hard choice. What I will say, though, is that Gloss Drop will be a firm contender for SCDP Album of 2011 come December.
Also, if you get a chance to see Battles play live, I recommend going! They seriously know how to put on a show!
j.r.
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