Leveret
Action at a Distance
self-released
Click to hear: “Grandfather’s Axe”
Leveret’s new album is a great record for people who like their Portland bands young and promising. It’s nowhere close to perfect, but Leveret are definitely young and they promise a lot on this debut. Action at a Distance can be as great as it is annoying; for every “how’d they do that?” moment, there’s a “why’d they do that?” moment.
Take a song like “Grandfather’s Axe.” It begins with a grating and obnoxious keyboard farting out of your speakers before Jesse Gertz delivers a vocal performance I can’t help but compare to Brandon Boyd of Incubus. It has the power to annoy and dull you simultaneously. Just when you’re about to give up on it, though, a killer chorus, complete with “do-do, do-do, da-do” backing vocals doubled on guitar, almost makes up for it. Guitarist Cormac Brown is a confident player who gets the job done every time. The tape keeps rolling at the end of the track and you can hear him ask if his take was alright, knowing damn well that it was.
“Wizard” has the same ups and downs as “Axe.” It starts slow but redeems itself with a Boards of Canada-esque bridge, followed by more of Brown’s guitar freakouts. A lot of the songs on Action get more interesting in their second halves, when keyboards start arpeggiating and super-processed guitars go nuts. “Oscillator” offers a couple of average/listenable verses before wowing with sad-kitten synths layered beneath whistling West Coast hip hop keyboard, followed by some great early ’90s post-rock guitar.
“Unclothing” — probably the single, because it’s catchy and the third track here — would be really good if it wasn’t titled “Unclothing” and didn’t have lyrics telling a girl where she can put her socks after she takes them off (the fucking floor, obviously!). You almost wish they would have gone all-in and called it “The Unclothing” for maximum idiocy. Penn Chan’s bass playing, which is great throughout the album, really comes to the fore on this track because it’s one of the few elements keeping the synths in check. I wish his bass was mixed a little louder, because it deserves to overpower a lot of the other sounds on Action.
Questionable choices aside, I’ve heard one-and-a-half local records this year, and Action at a Distance is my favorite. I’m excited to find out what they do next.
— Peet Chamberlain
