Alarm is the second album by Elephant Recording Company duo Giant Day who are based on a farm in Patience Pennsylvania, where the duo of Emily Growden and Derek Almstead have built their own studio and continued recording music, like they did before they became farmers, they played in among other groups, Olvia Tremor Control, Marshmallow Coast, Elf Power and Faster Circuits. They were joined on this album by guests Gary Olson, Jamey Robinson and Dave "Diminisher" McDonnell.
The band will be on tour across the East Coast USA in December opening for Ladybug Transistor on 12.5 - Amherst, MA - The Drake, 12.6 - Catskill, NY - The Avalon Lounge, 12.7 - Brooklyn, NY - Union Pool,12.8 - Baltimore, MD - Metro Gallery, 12.9 - Philadelphia, PA - Kung Fu Necktie,12.10 - Hamden, CT - Space Ballroom, 12.11 - Medford, MA - Deep Cuts, 12.12 - Portland, ME - Space Gallery, 12.13 - Winooski, VT - Standing Stones.
The A side opens with Out Of Hand a slightly off-centre shoegaze song of warning and dismay, for how Out Of Hand things have got. Golden Times are clearly not being sung about the 2020's, Emily serenely asking what could go wrong, over a skittish drumbeat and clear-cut guitars, with gentle synths evocative of blissed out days.
Without Warning things have gone out of control, how disconcerting things are, can be found in the slow plodding beat, that has people asking why they didn't get told in advance things would be this bad, how could they not realize the guitars were firing off a distress signal. Healthy Families Virginia may be the bands chosen destination for safe harbour from the current storm, even as they float away on the gently reverbed guitars and vocals.
Paoli has ticking clock synths, seeping into the spry jangly guitars and keyboard effects with the King Of Ghosts conjuring up a captain, trying to keep the wheel steady on the ship in extremely choppy waters. Back To The Corner is a dream for being back in a town with corners to hang out on, days of innocence spent killing time on that mythical corner.
The B-side opens with Spite 28 far gentler than the Spite that pours out every day online, on the TV and from political leaders, this is a distorted reality, all the oxygen has been sucked out of normal life by all the Spite and hate.
Think Carefully has the claustrophobia of Bowie's Next Day album, dark ruminations looking for different solutions. Devil Dog is distressed funk punk for the most dislocated of dancers to flex, throwing shapes and wondering how you stop a true Devil Dog without destroying everything else along the way.
Scowl At Me just because I don't buy into your worldview, oh the shame of wanting a more beautiful world than the current one. New Hollow is super slow dive through the New Hollow world being created, crashing through our normal expectations.
My Warm Smile has an opiated feel for a bright new day they want to celebrate, if only the world wasn't collapsing, bird's twitter away delightfully in the background. The album closes with Good Neighbor who they can rely on in the same way, you rely on the ticking of a dependable clock, odd flourishes keep that clock ticking one minute closer to midnight, doomsday appears to be approaching ever more closely, when it hits, they want the most beautiful apocalypse possible.
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