Imagine if modern rock music could be as clever as it is big. Imagine if someone realised that, whilst the genre is built on excess, it could play with undertatement to get just as impressive results. Imagine if there were a band that really took the idea of running the full spectrum of sonic dynamics to its logical conclusion. And, what if a band could do all that and still end up with an effortlessly beguiling and beautiful song? Well, the band you are imagining is Last Relapse and the song you have in mind is their latest single, “Everyone Dances Outside of Their Bodies.”
Considering that they have been off the scene for a decade or so, this is one hell of a song to come back with. Of course, this is rock music, but it also draws on all manner of tricks from neighbouring genres. There is a grand, gothic-infused pathos running through the music, a delicacy as the guitars are happy to merely chime and cascade, the drums and bass are content to sit back, allowing plenty of space for the vocals to work their magic, and magic is the right word here.
As the song adds sonic weight it does so through more indie-inclined sonics, delicate six-string motifs and a bustling, yet distant drum tattoo, and each time it puts the foot on the gas, it does so with an increasingly heavy, rock and roll urgency until the tension is too much to bear, the atmosphere has reached breaking point and the whole thing unleashes behind a short, sharp, seering and satisfying guitar break.
There is something almost orchestral about the way the song slow-burns its way from understatement to anthemics, something that shows that Last Relapse is more than about heads-down, no-nonsense, mindless boogie, though I’m sure they can do that too, if ever they were inclined.
If you are going to drop a calling card to say, “Hey everyone, guess who’s back?” then this is precisely how you do it.
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