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The
Debutantes: Late Night Shutdown
The Debutantes are a four-piece hailing from Allston, MA, and Late Night Shutdown is their debut album. Its chimey, mellow, early R.E.M. vibe mixed with very occasional Joy Division-via-Interpol squall makes it a perfect bedroom/headphone experience. While predominantly quiet a real defeated-by-heartbreak effort it has just enough punch to keep from sounding watered-down or excessively wistful. Another way to describe it would be Boy-era U2 ballads meet at-their-peak Cure quivering harmonics and My Bloody Valentine-ish guitar swooshes with a strong finish of Jeff Tweedy twang and broke-down spirit. The first track, You Taste So Useless and Worn Out, is a terrific pissed-off-but-finding-beauty-in-it opener. Driving bass, crashing cymbals, sublime guitar hooks, and a Michael Stipe trying but unable to soar like Bono vocal performance means this one is more agitated than most of the tunes that follow and also primed for indie pop-rock radio stations. Track two, Telephones, is the most Interpol-esque song of the ten on the album: the vocals muster Paul Banks more than Stipe, and the guitars are that mix of dirty and lovely Interpol do so well. Track four is all updated early R.E.M., with a perfectly simple synthesizer line running beneath pop-click-pop drums and picked-out jingle-jangle guitar lines. Fast forward to track seven, underpinned by a haunting guitar riff that plays over and over without ever getting old. The reverb-drenched vocals, which may even be double-tracked, only add to the songs evocative longing-after-something-long-gone feel. Track eight starts off with the R.E.M. guitar mellifluousness weve by now come to expect, but the vocal delivery suddenly throws a Smiths curve. Half-drawling, half-singing Ill be a no one / youll be so gone / neon lights burn out in that softened-corners voice that still defines Morrissey, the lead singer never comes off desperate or whiny but rather quietly poetic. Track nine, No Wonder Town, has a similarly lyrical feel, but with the added warp of No Depression dust and heat. Theres little that doesnt go down easy on this album, and I mean that in the best way possible. But the one drawback of Late Night Shutdown just may be its late night languidness. As graceful and elegant as much of it is, there are moments when it threatens to beg off with drowsiness. And while no one can really complain about a sort of dreamier Murmur being brought into the world, several snapshots of older songs and bands captured here are a bit too vivid, forcing you to see The Debutantes as something like capable pilferers as opposed to musical innovators. Still, this is a highly-enjoyable, highly-listenable first go, and theres little question that with more time to develop their own voice, The Debutantes will make an impression thats all their own.
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