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I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness
(We featured this artist previously; here's a slightly edited reprint of that same entry.)
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness are blessed not only with an awesome (and appropriate) name but lots of high hat and hypnotic bass, tempered by echoing vocals, swirling guitars, and anguished keyboards. Their dark-wave rock may be influenced by Joy Division, but they're got a lot more life in them than other similar bands and I could lose myself in "When You Go Out" for hours at a time, with my eyes closed, lying on my bedroom floor, half-dreaming. As Last Girl to the Party says, it's hard not to drop the I-bomb ("Interpol") when talking about this band, who have become one of Austin's finest, but ILYBICD (as the kids are wont to call 'em) are more than just an Interpol clone.
Their brooding, atmospheric rock slides and grooves across the dance floor and between crowded rooms of well dressed hipsters; in their self-titled EP I complained that the songs weren't allowed to breathe and the band was focused on not overstaying their catchy hooks, steady backbeats, and mesmerizing guitar lines. Well, as it turned out, all of my worrying was for naught, as their spine-tingling debut album, Fear Is On Our Side is all I could have asked for, and more.
Some albums are tailor-made for cross-country roadtrips or dance parties or painting the town red. Fear Is On Our Side is another beast entirely. On Fear Is On Our Side the songs stretch and breathe, and rush to fill up all available space, seeping in like a beautiful, poisonous gas. It recalls eerie dark nights and cloud-filled skies: intimate, poignant, and elegiac; it's an album I would hesitate to listen to in bright sunlight. The delicacy and beauty of the songs demand a careful eye, a steady hand, and hush tones of voice, as we are peering at all of the intricate nooks and crannies under museum glass. The melancholy throb of "According to Plan" seems like something out of a dream with its velvety soft vocals and lilting melodies, almost too familiar, while lead singer Christian Goyer croons like he and I the only two people in the room. And it's not all gloom and doom from here on out. Although the band's stock in trade is "dark, darker, darkest" with nods to the Cure and Echo and the Bunnyment, I should also note that the five-piece band put on an amazing live show, with musicianship that stands well above the indie rock pack. Live, the songs rise and expand from moody, touching rock to an all out wall of sound; ILYBICD are masters of the slow burn and the eventual, perfectly executed, gorgeous, white-hot rush of a backdraft.
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness - According to Plan
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness - When You Go Out
Official web site of I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness. Buy Fear Is On Our Side from Amazon or iTunes.
Posted by Queen of the Front Row at 02.25.07 at 11:05 PM
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