White Denim “Fits” Review
With its highly entertaining sophomore release Fits, White Denim has yet again proven to be a wildly innovative band which is unafraid to do as it pleases, even if that means creating an album that is completely outside of any recognizable genre.
On its debut album, Workout Holiday, the band proved that there would be no easy template for anyone to describe its sound. The group diligently continued this process with Fits, where the styles and sounds on the album change frequently from song to song (sometimes even within a song), and give the record a wildly schizophrenic feel. When left in the hands of any lesser group such an approach could spell a dizzying disaster that finds a band cruising off the side of a cliff just as it’s gaining speed; White Denim, however, are more than capable of juggling the different styles it utilizes on the record. The album is essentially a 60/40 split, with the first portion of the album comprised of swirling, fuzzed out rockers and the latter reflecting a mellower, restrained take on their genre-twisting music.
Album opener “Radio Milk How Can You Stand It” sets the trend for the disc as it utilizes multiple genres and time shifts, immediately displaying how exciting and diverse the record is going to be. The opener is followed by “All Consolation,” which sounds like a garage rock take on Grizzly Bear’s echo-y harmonies. Trailing the old school punk sounding “Say What You Want,” and the short but explosive “El Hard Attack DCWYN” is “I Start to Run,” a track which starts out with a Minutemen-like bass line before morphing into a speed addled garage rocker. Things eventually slow down on the bubbly, Doors-leaning instrumental brain-melter “Sex Prayer,” which serves as the introduction to the mellower section of the record.
“Sex Prayer” melds nicely into “Mirrored and Reverse,” which takes the tripped-out dreamy feel of the former song and adds some equally hazy vocals and meandering guitar lines. The acoustic guitars and hand claps are then brought into the fold with “Paint Yourself” where the band tows along a lounge act sound that, after hearing the first four or five songs, seems like a different White Denim altogether. After the vocals are turned up in the mix with “I’ll Have It Just The Way We Were,” and “Everybody Somebody,” which takes a step back into an aggressive garage rock sound, the album slows down and fades away with two softer and less abrasive tracks.
First up is “Regina Holding Hands,” which is the most polished song on the entire disc, making it either the best song on Fits, or the worst, depending on how you look at it. With a smooth acoustic guitar rhythm and some warm background vocals, the extremely soulful “Regina” shows the band’s songwriting chops, even if they’re hidden behind a shield of being as wild and off the beaten path as possible for much of the album. The disc ends with “Sync’n” which has a simple guitar-picking part that is melded with some marching drums and haunted, soulful vocals. As the song reaches its conclusion the group starts to flex its glam rock muscle (showcasing the album’s final genre-twist) and climaxes with some well places “la la las” as its swelling instrumentation blossoms—a fitting end to a disc that is as fearless as it is compelling.
While I can understand that some people like their music to fit neatly into a certain categorization, I can’t say that I am one of those people. As someone who bumbles like a fool every time someone asks me “what kind of music do you like,” White Denim seem to be the manifestation of the sect of people who don’t want to be stuck with simple categories. The band is neither beholden to a certain genre nor does it float aimlessly over the course of the record, yet there is a sense of freedom on the disc that is really endearing. While there are definitely genres the band uses as pillars for its sound (namely soulful garage rock), it would be inept of me to ever try to nail down what, exactly, it sounds like. And with Fits White Denim has not only shown the scope in which one band, on one record, can fully explore, but it has created one of the most entertaining, exciting and rewarding discs I have heard this year.
