Tapes 'n Tapes

"Hang Them All"
from the album Walk It Off
2008
iTunes

Hmm, you can't really make jokes about hangings, can you? Minneapolis' Tapes 'n Tapes have posted the first song from forthcoming Loon-y follow-up Walk It Off both as a nice-quality 320 kbps mp3 and -- for, um, "all you super duper music geeks out there" -- as an even nicer-quality FLAC file. On early listens to "Hang Them All," it would make sense if these guys are hanging a few of their hopes (eh, it'll have to do) on audio fidelity, because through these headphones, anyway, it sounds like producer David Fridmann has largely avoided cluttering up their sound here. With sproingy bass in the middle, spiky guitar high-end in one speaker, organ in the other, and dancey hi-hat all over the place, it's clean and professional-sounding, the kind of track I suspect might sneak up on me just because it's strain-free on the ears. No more Pavement comparisons on this one, though, which leans more toward the bouncey latter-day Britpop of bands like Franz Ferdinand or the Long Blondes. "Heads will roll," Grier sings. Dude, that's not hanging, that's a guillotine.

~ Marc Hogan, Pitchfork

For the full review, CLICK HERE