Saturday, February 04, 2017

Song of the day

"No Trace", by The Bats.

It is, of course, entirely coincidental that the very same week in which the United States inaugurated an Administration that is demonstrably bat-shit crazy, The Bats (you see what I did there) released a new album into the wild. The comfort provided by the latter has acted as a necessary counterbalance to the anguish dredged up by the former. It should be required listening.

"No Trace", as far as I can gather, was the second song to appear before the album was released (we used to call this "the second single", back when times were simpler and the position of President of the United States carried with it prestige, decorum, and even a modicum of civic responsibility; heck, how long until us old-timers start to feel nostalgic for George W Bush?). It is, simply put, another in a long line of classic Bats songs. It sounds simple enough, but the closer you listen, the more layers of guitars you can pick out. It is an impressive sleight-of-hand that nowhere do they collapse on top of each other; nowhere does it sound like Too Much Guitars.

It's been six years since their previous album. Here's hoping the planet hasn't been destroyed by madmen before they get a chance to make another one.