It is curious how the lines of connection between post-rock and new post-punk have become more and more entrenched with the passage of time. Of Foals a The Murder Capital, the examples are becoming clearer and more convincing. This is the case with the second album by this Irish formation, in which there is even room for the Pinkfloydian epic in the majestic “Crying”. In his case, this way of balancing on this path is more connected with the breach opened by Radiohead more than two decades ago. And it is that time passes, but what does not is the need to continue looking in the mirror of basic power sources such as Joy Divisionas it happens in cuts as heartfelt as “Return My Head”.
The accumulation of influences that put wickers to the whole also collects the arty way of Sonic Youth y Pavement; in this case, through the opening stretch of “Ethel,” before it all breaks out into a crescendo of runaway emotion. The case of this cut is very representative of The Murder Capital’s ability to always skirt the border that adjoins the most contrived bombast. However, they always manage to avoid it through an irresistible filter of sincerity. Magic in its purest form with which to reach different states of expression, be it from the rarefied dreamlike atmosphere that endows with compulsive obsession that nourishes every pore of “The Stars Will Leave The Stage” to the atonal goodness with which they sharpen each pluck of the pop in cinemascope, in mode The Triffids, from “Only Good Things”. The resemblances with the mythical Australian formation are palpable in a clear and healthy way throughout a route in which there is also space for the ethereal minimalism in the beautiful “Belonging” and for the obscuring Arabian atmosphere that runs through every inch of the headline of the disk. A new sample of the melodic exuberance with which they also endow each of the acts arranged here with precious affectation, in which we can also get an idea of how they would sound Talk Talk of having spent time in the oceanic sounds of Australia in the eighties.
Of course, what we have here is a full-length album that invites us to challenge current consumer trends through the unequivocal need for several listens to capture all the juice concentrated here. Which is not little, precisely.
