Album Review: Eddy Current Suppression Ring-Rush To Relax

After waiting an extra month to get my hands on the vinyl version of this album and an extra two weeks dealing with my postal service, I finally got my hands on the new Eddy Current Suppression Ring album. I was a little worried over this one, after hearing that it didn't live up the greatness that was their first two albums. True, how any artist could match Primary Colours in quality is beyond me, but I still had high hopes for this one. So do Eddy Current Suppression Ring succeed? Yes and no.

Rush to Relax will go down as the album were ECSR decided to change things up. Supposedly, the band had been listening to more of The Clean and Flying Nun style post-punk/indie rock in the lead up to this album and it shows. Opener "Anxiety" despite its speed, direct catchiness, and being an ECSR classic in the making, doesn't really showcase the album properly. Everything is slowed down, stretched out, and the guitar is less prominent than usual. Which isn't to say ECSR aren't' the garage-punk maestros you know and love. They're just tyring new things, and nine times out of ten they work. The romantic edges"Gentleman" and "I Can Be A Jerk" both have. The epic guitar solo in the middle of "Turning Out", stand outs "I've Got a Feeling", which is classic ECSR, and "Burn" which shifts into darker territory with paranoid lyrics and pencil wire riffs that will vibrate in your brain for days. All these things scream why people fell in love with ECSR in the first place and it's nice to see the band wants and can stretch its musical legs.

What doesn't work? Oddly enough, the punkiest tracks. Both "Walked Into a Corner" and "Isn't It Nice" clock in at under 2 minutes, and their herky-jerky and bluntness feel out of place and slightly forced on a controlled album like this. Also the long field recording at the end of the album feels very unnecessary. However, those are minor complaints for what is really a great album. It might be the first release the Eddy Current Suppression Ring have put that's a grower, but it will still worm itself into every garage and punk loving kid soon enough.

(mp3) Eddy Current Suppression Ring-Anxiety

Links:

Eddy Current Suppression Ring's Website
Buy the Album Here, From Goner Records