Friends in High and Low Places
Six years is a long time for any band to wait between releases in today’s indiescape. Between 2001’s Go Forth and its follow-up Let’s Stay Friends, fans couldn’t be blamed for fearing that they’d lost Les Savy Fav forever. The wait was punctuated by the career-spanning singles compilation, Inches, in 2004; however, Friends was necessary in reviving the Les Savy Fav name. To further spotlight their resurgence, they followed up mere months later with After the Balls Drop, a hasty and arguably unnecessary reminder that the band wasn’t going anywhere.Friends is a triumphant return to a form that was never lost, pushing their sound to its next logical step. Though front man Tim Harrington blamed the album’s long gestation on writer’s block, there’s no sign of it here. He makes his band’s intentions known right away on opener “Pots and Pans:” “Let’s tear this whole place down and build it up again/ This band’s a beating heart and nowhere near its end.”
ame Indeed, the group’s continued vitality is apparent in every song, almost each of which could easily stand up against any of their past peaks. Tracks like frantic rocker “The Equestrian,” the gliding “What Would Wolves Do?” and single “Patty Lee” are kinetic, catchy, and executed with amazing restraint and precision. Ten seconds into the opening rift of the latter track is all it takes to cure six years worth of entropy.
ame In another shrewd move, evocative of the album title, the group came back to the party with their equally cool friends in top form. The guest list on Friends includes Metric’s Emily Haines, the Unicorns’ Nick Thorburn, and Saturday Night Live’s Fred Armisen, among others. The best of these collaborations is the vocal turn by Enon’s Toko Yasuda on the slinky “Kiss Kiss is Getting Old.” Her verses drip with seductive menace that segues via serpentine guitars into Harrington’s eruptive chorus. It’s enough to make one forgive “Comes and Goes,” a bland duet between Harrington and Fiery Furnaces’ Eleanor Friedburger.
Taking the adage of ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ into consideration, Les Savy Fav could just as easily have released Let’s Stay Friends in 2002, and it would still have proven just as viable, as well stood proudly as the band’s best effort yet.
ame Sadly, they come close to wasting a fair amount of the good faith they restored on their subsequent live album. Whereas Friends felt natural and effortless, After the Balls Drop feels forced and contrived; for example, Tim Harrington has to reassure his audience one song into the performance that “we’re really into this tonight.”
Ironically, most of the live incarnations of their new songs sound stifled, as if they’re holding back. Tracks like the aforementioned “Wolves” (here hobbled by insincere howling at the end) and “Patty Lee” no longer glide so much as plod. Seth Jabour’s normally commanding guitar work merely sounds like a muted afterthought. Not even older favorites like “The Sweat Descends” and “We’ll Make a Lover of You” pack the same punch as on the album. Covers of Pixies’ “Debaser” and Nirvana’s “Sliver” sound perfect in theory, but offer no additional color or variety to the set.
The truth is that it’s Harrington’s stage antics that make a Les Savy Fav performance truly memorable. The costume changes, strip-downs, and physical interactions with the front row help elevate the band’s performances into something more special even on an off night. Deprived of that extra intimacy on record, such an off night becomes more painfully obvious and leads more cynical listeners to cry “stop-gap.”
But like any good friend, one has to take the bad with the good and forgive mistakes. Balls may have been a blatant effort on Les Savy Fav’s part to stay on people’s minds, but the fact that fans welcomed them back with open arms after such a long wait should be evidence enough that they were remembered. As long as they continue to release albums as consistently rewarding as Let’s Stay Friends, they always will be.
Leave a Comment