na: stars like fleas

countless instruments were cropped from this picture.

One of my favorite bands in New York has made a record. And it’s finally out now. I reviewed it here for another publication, so I don’t have much more to say. But it also comes complete with a curious Pitchfork review that goes like this:

Please, stop right there. Certainly by now, you’ve noticed the numerical rating several pixels above this second sentence, and you’re already thinking, “Another 7.something. No time for this.” Your pointer is above the back button, your finger on the trigger. Don’t do it, please….The Ken Burns Effect is one of the year’s most ambitious and daring records, blessed, beset and united by the desire to steer clear of indie rock’s middle road, to be ambitiously good. It loses and wins big, sometimes in the same song, sometimes in the same verse. But, at the very least, just as you shouldn’t pass on a band because of an inane name like Stars Like Fleas, records this cared for shouldn’t be skipped because of a rating. Sometimes, I think The Ken Burns Effect deserves a 10.0. Sometimes, it feels like a 2.0. You might hate it. You might love it. But you need to hear it.

Not a bad way of grabbing your attention, I suppose. But what does it sound like? I’ve claimed in the past that they’re like a digital Talk Talk. In essence, they’re the opposite in sound (messy, impulsive), but evoke those same feelings (weird unease, jealousy that I don’t know how to write a song quite as good/at all). But, yes, Stars Like Fleas. Try it today! I promise you won’t know what the heck to make of it.