These New Puritans' members exude youth in countless ways: They seem almost unaware of their influences, in a way that sounds something like originality. The band's debut, Beat Pyramid, mixes post-apocalyptic punk with the empty darkness of Joy Division, as well as dry wit and frantic bursts of experimental sound. The result keeps a foot in the past and a foot in the future.
The album's highlight, "Elvis," makes it clear up-front that it's about another Elvis — "Elvis / I wasn't talking 'bout that king / or hairdos" — before admitting, "It's confusing." By the time the band gets to its soaring chorus, the song has shifted into a search for meaning and connection to a higher power: "If there is a God / He will take me up."
Throughout "Elvis," sounds and ideas are crammed together frenetically, as the band interrupts itself and lets its sentences run into guitar riffs instead of a more logical conclusion. When These New Puritans' members do complete a thought, the sharp wordplay seems to signify everything at the same time, or nothing at all.
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Copyright 2008 KEXP
