Electrelane
Issue #31
No Shout, No Calls (Too Pure)
By Kristina Francisco
Published: March 1st, 2007 | 12:00am
Electrelane’s fourth album, No Shouts, No Calls, is more of what you’ve come to expect from the Brighton, England, band. Written in Berlin last summer and recorded last fall in a small lakeside town in Michigan, Electrelane offers a brighter album than 2005’s Axes without abandoning its rock roots. Though the band didn’t record in Steve Albini’s studio this time around, it hasn’t stepped out of its comfort zone, once again turning to the quartet’s now well-worn formula: slow starts building into enveloping sonic crescendos.
“The Greater Times” solidly opens the album and begins characteristically: a few lonely, opening guitar notes until cymbals ring and bass and keys show up. “Tram 21” is anchored by Emma Gaze’s drums, overlaid with flourishing guitar and Verity Susman’s vocals. The playful “Saturday” begins like a children’s song, with a keyboard line propelling it forward and call-and-response lyrics throughout.
But there are breaks from the band’s modus operandi. The laid-back vibe of “Cut and Run,” a rocknroll-Hawaiian song built on ukulele, is refreshing in its easiness, and the metal streaks in “Between the Wolf and the Dog” show off Mia Clarke’s impressive guitar shredding before dying down into typical Electrelane fare.
Though No Shouts has more lyrics than its predecessor, the album feels heavily instrumental for the most part. Vocals here take a backseat to the music and are used more as another instrument rather than a storytelling vehicle. For fans of 2004’s The Power Out, there are, disappointingly, none of Susman’s multilingual vocals scanning over the music, vocals that served as that album’s centerpieces.
There are indeed many things Electrelane does undeniably well: the band creates hour-long albums that are sonic experiences rather than songs strung together; it plays music that’s engrossing simply for its songcraft and power; and it translates its records well in a live setting. The quartet’s strengths have always been in the complexity of its musical arrangements, the interplay between instruments, and the necessity and vitality of each player for it all to stay together. Though some fans may be initially disappointed by much of the same, No Shouts, No Calls reminds you why you fancied Electrelane in the first place.
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