Waiting for Githead
Though the London group produced the entirety of their catalogue inside the current decade, the bleary guitar tone that dominates Githead’s latest effort, Waiting for a Sign, is lodged firmly in the 1990s; it is stuck somewhere between the English alternative rock of Oasis and latter-decade post-grunge of Stone Temple Pilots.
Clean, shimmery guitars echo over the mid-paced bass groove that shapes opener “Not Coming Down.” It’s a pleasing bit of atmospherics, but the first track never really comes into its own. The modulating, single notes reverberate like directionless ripples in a still pool, never streamlining into anything truly compelling or innovative or even catchy. Lead singer Colin Newman’s nasal lilt is the only aspect of “Bringing The Sea to the City” that endows the track any sort of life or character whatsoever. It turns out that this premature diagnosis is actually a pretty accurate representation of the remainder of Waiting for a Sign.
“To Somewhere” has the makings of a cool low-down post-punk vibe, but the dull, undistorted sixteenth-note chug starts to feel draining and drawn out after only a few chord repetitions; Githead somehow manage to suck the life out of the tried and true formula. All the while, the production and guitar tone (which eclipses all other aspects of Waiting for a Sign) is confusingly warm for the muted, minimalist style that Githead seem to be aiming for. The ethereal quality of the layered vocals and backing synth arrangements in “For The Place We’re In” carry a tinge of Emerson Lake & Palmer. The song serves a slight reprieve from the overwhelmingly average alt-rock rhythms that dominate the album’s first half, but the song builds up to a non-existent climax, its structure somehow promising something that “For The Place We’re In” fails to deliver.
Waiting for a Sign is almost halfway over before it even hints at picking up the pace. For a fleeting moment, in forest of jumpy rhythms and jangling acoustic guitar, “Air Dancing” starts to finally feel substantial and textured against the washed-out uniformity of the album’s other tracks, but quickly fades into ineffectuality somewhere in the midst of a boring, drawn out coda.
The plodding instrumental “Slow Creatures” is aptly named; the song is a recursive trudge, and not in a hypnotic doomy, stoner metal way either. In, like, a perplexing, frustrating way. Like a “Didn’t I hear these same chords in this exact pattern two songs ago?” type of slog. And it feels deliberate, but the question is whether or not the needless repetition is unwitting.
In traversing the primarily flat plane that is Githead’s latest LP, an attentive listener can easily pick up on a diverse crop of UK-based influences, from the Paul McCartney-esque timbre of Newman’s voice to the British alt-rock chunk of Blur to the echoey, ethereal guitar work of U2’s The Edge. Even the twitchy post-punk beats of Joy Division make an appearance in several of the record’s more lucid moments. But, rather than playing like the diverse smorgasbord it totally had the potential to be, Waiting For A Sign sounds like all of these artists watered down and smeared together into a grey, bland ball of rock with no edge or distinction or real character to it. It feels underdone, flavorless. Hell, even Githead’s song titles are blasé: “Today,” “What If?” “To Somewhere.”
The album feels like one long song that one starts to forget the moment it ends. Maybe Githead need to ditch the pallid, dreamy atmospherics and take more of a sonic initiative rather than merely waiting for a sign.
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