"To The East" by Electrelane
Jeff Tweedy recently lamented that punk rock tossed out some good with a lot of the bad of corporate rock, namely musicianship and professional songwriters. Electrelane offers a stirring rebuttal with its fourth album, No Shouts No Calls. The British quartet is primitive, almost amateurish in its approach—the vocals waver in and out of key, the drumming can generously be described as "plodding," and the songs are kiddie-band simple. But what simplicity, what plodding, what wavering! Gorgeous songs like "In Berlin" and "To The East" haunt like early Joy Division, an obvious influence. Tweedy has a point—why set limits on potentially valid options?—but No Shouts No Calls shows what kind of beauty can be created within those limits.
A.V. Club Rating: B+
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