Release: 10/2011
Label: Self-Released
1. “Lays at Rest” – A
2. “Mallrats (La La La)” – A
3. “Halloween All Year” – A
4. “All The Cool Kids” – A
5. “Suspended” – A
6. “Painted Faces and Long Hair” – A
7. “Hallway Homicide” – A
8. “In My Bed” – A-
9. “Never Ever” – A
10. “Like No One Else” – A-
11. “Ancient Egypt” – A
12. “Under The Flowers” – A
Comments: The Orwells caught my attention earlier this year and they’ve damn secured that attention now. Remember When is the band’s debut full-length. It’s a loud listen, exploding with blasts of unrefined rock N roll slime. The pop slime that sticks to your brain like a piece of Wrigley’s chewing gum. Local reference indeed. I shit you not when I say these tracks stack up to the best of comparative material from recent years i.e. slightly to a lot better known bands like Cum Stain, Natural Child, Ty Segall, Diarrhea Planet, and Thee Oh Sees. The in-your-face production tactics are well-oiled, particularly on “Suspended,” which has some big echo on the vocals. It’s like if Julian Casablancas got the shit kicked out of him during the making of Is This It and wanted revenge via the recording process. That kind of thing. The shimmy shimmy might be what Reatard wanted to make when he was 15 and bashing on a pair of buckets and a shitty guitar, if only he had a few other older dudes around to make it ‘fuller’. Well, that eventually happened. The point I’m really trying to make it is that in an age of bands sprouting in an instant it’s always quite excellent to hear a youthful effort that particularly stands out. Orwells can just as fine do the slower/slacker (example, “Never Ever”) thing as the fast thing (example, “Mallrats”) as the Arctic Monkeys thing (example, “Ancient Egypt”) as the choice old tyme intro samples (“Under the Flowers” particularly is CHOICE). If this is their Animal Farm, will their next be Nineteen Eighty Four?
Grade: A (93)
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 