Times New Viking | Dancer Equired

Merge Records (2011)
By GARRETT MARTIN  |  April 27, 2011
2.5 2.5 Stars

TNV main

Times New Viking's tour of America's legendary indie-rock labels continues with their first release for Merge after a few albums on Matador and then Siltbreeze. By 2015, they'll be on SST, and by late 2015, they'll be suing Greg Ginn. But right now, in 2011, they've done the inevitable and tidied up just a bit. The overwhelming fuzz and full-blown levels of past TNV joints have given way to a slightly more presentable sound. The fidelity's still low — this ain't no Mutt Lange production — but Dancer Equired doesn't scrape out your eardrums when you listen to it on headphones. The album feels less urgent and reckless, but you may also find it easier to focus on the songs, which are a vital part of the record-making process that Times New Viking have excelled at. The always-present kiwi-pop influence — these folks obviously love the Clean — is more blatant with the band's new-found noise reduction. The continuous hitmaking of Present the Paisley Reich might be gone forever, but Dancer Equired offers up enough catchy pop jams to warrant a listen.

TIMES NEW VIKINGTHE BABIES | Great Scott, 1222 Comm Ave, Allston | May 26 @ 9 pm | $14 doors | 617.566.9014

Related: Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears | Scandalous, Yelle | Safari Disco Club, The Sounds | Something To Die For, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Music, Times New Viking, Times New Viking,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY GARRETT MARTIN
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   YO LA TENGO | FADE  |  January 17, 2013
    Fade starts with James McNew and Ira Kaplan harmonizing on the line "sometimes the good things fade."
  •   ALLO DARLIN' | EUROPE  |  April 10, 2012
    It's good to hear a band grow. Like Allo Darlin's first effort, Europe is full of catchy pop songs, and Elizabeth Morris's vocals are still heart-tuggingly direct and intimate.
  •   CEREMONY | ZOO  |  March 13, 2012
    Ceremony aren't as intellectual or dryly hilarious as Wire and don't attempt a comparable stylistic variety, but the raucous Zoo is a fine tribute to Wire's heavier side, alternating between powerful, lumbering riffs and manic splatters of guitar noise.
  •   THE MAGNETIC FIELDS | LOVE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA  |  February 28, 2012
    The Magnetic Fields' last three albums all eschewed the synthesizers that typified their sound in the '90s, but Fields main man Stephin Merritt makes up for it on Love at the Bottom of the Sea, where he deploys at least 10 albums' worth of synths in a brisk 35 minutes.
  •   GUIDED BY VOICES | LET'S GO EAT THE FACTORY  |  January 11, 2012
    The GBV name on Let's Go Eat the Factory' s label indicates two things to those fans: this is the first record to feature the "classic" Bee Thousand/Alien Lanes line-up since 1996, and this is the first Pollard album to deserve the GBV moniker since the break-up.

 See all articles by: GARRETT MARTIN