Sometimes there are those albums that hit you in a place that haven’t seen the light of day in months. I mean, you have all the glittery pop that sinks its way into your eyeballs, the dance rock that makes your feet jitter about, the heavier rock that you feel in the depths of your stomach, and then there are albums that penetrate your cerebral cortex like Friends for Now, the debut album from the San Francisco collective Young Prisms.
This album came to my attention very late at night, in the last remaining hours of winter freedom between quarters at my University, and it couldn’t have been the better soundtrack to the occasion. Music that my elders may sometimes call “noise,” Young Prisms sound like My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth got together on a sunny day and took some acid. It’s very post-post-post-rock, almost like the falling action of the Animal Collective-esque climax, if post-rock was described in dramatic structure. Now some of you may be like, “then why the hell would I want to listen to that?” Some of you may be like, “Anything that sounds like Sonic Youth must be a work of genius,” and some of you may be like, “what, acid? I want some.”
Whichever person you are, the music that Young Prisms put out on their debut record might be exactly your cup of tea, or it might just be a special cup of tea for a certain kind of mood.
For me right now, it’s my cup of tea.
Being of the “shoegaze” variety, lyrics are often indecipherable, and therefore aren’t the most important part. Like I said before, the music (whether I can understand the lyrics or not) found its way into my brain and drowned my head in sound. Now I’m sure it would be a different experience if it was live or if I was on drugs, but as a completely sober human being I enjoyed Friends for Now very much. I will warn you however, it’s definitely not an album to belt out with your friends on a long drive with the windows down or “dance” to (I say “dance” because it would be more like swaying and…well…gazing at your shoes). The songs on Friends for Now rang from the 0:58 trippy and distorted “All Day Holiday” to the 5:57 dreamy epic “In Your Room,” but all of it flows together perfectly, and when your iTunes is set on a 10-second crossfade, it makes for quite an interesting listening experience. “Feel Fine,” “If Don’t Get Much” and “Breathless” are my stand-outs, mixing the fuzzy guitars with an easily discernible baseline, melody, and beat, which definitely makes Young Prisms more than just “noise.” Now get the album, start a pot of Yerba Mate, plop yourself down in a huge comfy chair, turn the lights down, put on your inexplicably large noise-canceling headphones, and let ‘er rip. Hopefully, if you’re in the right mood, you’ll quite enjoy it.
And I’m off to have another cup of tea.
Tracklist:
01 Friends For Now
02 If You Want To
03 Sugar
04 Eleni
05 In Your Room
06 All Day Holiday
07 Breathless
08 Feel Fine
09 I Don’t Get Much
10 Stay Awake
Find them here:
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