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8 out of 10
A whole host of circumstances meant that 'You Smash It, We'll Build Around It', the debut album of LA quartet The Outline took a long time to make. Two years after it was released in the US on Fearless (At The Drive-In, Plain White T's, The Aquabats) and four since their first EP, 'The Chestnut Tree', the high school friends who formed a band in 2002 have finally made it to the UK. It's been worth the wait, because 'You Smash It.' is a good record, but the trouble with the songs being written and recorded over such a long period of time is that The Outline's sound has developed and the LP lacks a certain consistency. They fulfil the album title's promise though; they've smashed up genres and built their own out of the shards of Weezer, Head Automatica, fellow LA dwellers The Bronx and No Age, Editors and the Decaydance set. It's quite a mix. Two things that are constant are singer/guitarist Graham Fink's intense, gruff voice and the sense that their chaos is, in spite of all the cherry picking, something new. Case and point is opener 'Aesthetic'. Fink's voice isn't lost among the submerged, underwater production as the burnt electronica morphs into melodramatic, experimental post-hardcore (Think Thrice-meets-Arcade Fire and a broken sandwich maker). On 'Life Or Lifelike', 'Death To Our Enemies' and 'My Masked Lust' it's as if an angry, decadent bull from LA has rampaged through every indie-dance song of the last four years. The Killer gets a hoof to the jugular and The Whip gets caught in its nose ring. Red hot partycore such as the excellent 'Shotgun' and former single 'Sloppy Drunk', plus the doom boogie woogie of 'Perfect For The Plain', promise to be brilliant when sweaty and live, while 'In Light Of Recent News' and 'Why We're Better Now' show where The Outline can go with their Jimmy Eat World-like control of epicness and intimacy. I'd bet there's a great record in them, now they've got the chance to make it. Listen: www.myspace.com/theoutline
Tracklist:
1. Aesthetic 2. Life Or Lifelike 3. Death To Our Enemies (We'll Make 'Em Sorry) 4. Why We're Better Now 5. Shotgun 6. My Masked Lust 7. In Light Of Recent News 8. Sloppy Drunk 9. Perfect For The Plain 10. Tragic Times 11. Interlude 12. Broadway And Hurst
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