Autolux
Future Perfect (DMZ/Columbia)
In the world of Autolux, signed to Joel and Ethan Coen’s Sony imprint DMZ, it’s still 1991. On the first half of debut Future Perfect, the trio’s alt-rock pedigree – guitarist Greg Edwards used to be in Failure, singer/drummer Carla Azar a veteran of Ednaswap – Autolux envelops the listener with both massive amounts of feedback and handfuls of pop bliss. Opener “Turnstile Blues” trots out under Azar’s Bonham-lite beats and velvety vocals, while “Sugarless” sounds like every great shoegaze tune distilled into one furious echoing drone, bookended with Edwards’ bulldozer guitar. The last six songs, however, lose touch with ground control and go spiraling out into the ether. “Great Days for the Passenger Element” creeps along at OK Computer speed, and “Asleep at the Trigger” is a sprawling, effects-driven painkiller cocktail, opening with someone playing a toy piano and ending with a series of alien bleeps and blips. “Here Comes Everybody” sounds like a lost Breeders track, with Azar’s nonsense lyrics echoing Kim Deal’s: “Soft soft silver bang like a bank’s hydraulics/The air it hangs its head and your cat has passed out.” Careful you don’t follow suit, particularly since “Plantlife” propels Future Perfect further into the blackness. (Parish, Tuesday, May 17)
This article appears in May 6 • 2005.