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The
Stills
Logic Will Break Your Heart
label: Vice/Atlantic
released: 10.21.03
our score: 3.5 out of 5.0
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So the past
month or two have been pretty rough for me. And, chances are,
you're not all that interested in my private affairs. Then again,
interpretation and emotional attachment with music can rely heavily
on personal experiences... and can imbue a specific song or record
with a certain depth or meaningfulness that it may not otherwise
be worthy of. That said, we will begin discussion of The Stills
full-length debut, Logic Will Break Your Heart.
In the last
month and a half I've gone from being happily engaged and living
with my fiancee, through a rapid unraveling of the relationship,
and her eventual departure from my life. And it was during this
time that I had begun to tackle Logic Will Break Your Heart.
So for me, it's been a bit of a soundtrack to recent goings-on.
The honest
truth of the matter is that The Stills aren't all that
extraordinary of a band. They're hip and modern (in that post-punk
kind of way) and are deserving of their commonplace mention among
contemporaries like Interpol (who they recently opened a tour
for). There's clangy, simplistic guitar work ... and there's a
bit more New Order than Joy Division here. But what's most welcome
about The Stills is they don't really seem to be as much rapists
of past cool music as has been quite a trend recently among the
recent post-punk resurgence. Instead, on Logic Will Break
Your Heart it truly appears that The Stills are simply making
music they like.
It's also clear,
however, that they're a young group. There's not a moment here
which could be remarked as brilliant, but where they fail in these
matters they excel in others.. There's a certain bit of honesty
in the lyrics - mostly dealing with heartbreak, and given my
recent personal experiences, The Stills suddenly seem much wiser
than they may first appear.
However clumsy
they might sound, lyrics like "And
I'm just so sick of wasting my time / love and death are always
on my mind" from "Love and Death" portray an honesty
and bluntness about relationships and life and all those other
crazy things that certainly ring through with truth... especially
given the gut-wrenching emotion that comes through on Tim Fletcher's
vocals.
But what's
most clear about The Stills is that there's a cohesiveness beneath
the band and their record that says much more than just the music
or words let on. Then again, I might be ascribing much more to
Logic Will Break Your Heart than it deserves...
Regardless,
it's a well-done debut - dark and lonely. It's only a pity I didn't
listen sooner, because they are right about one thing. Logic will
break your heart..
18-Nov-2003
7:45 PM
If you
liked Logic Will Break Your Heart...
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