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By RYAN MAVITY
I’m not sure whether to herald Matadors as the next big garage rock band or whether not they should be paying royalties to Franz Ferdinand and The Hives.
Flame the Whisper comes packed with bouncy choruses and danceable hooks. Actually, I shouldn’t be too hard on this record because I’m glad Live-Metal finally sent me an album that allowed me to use “bouncy” and “danceable” in a sentence. You generally don’t write that when you review the latest offering from Torture Killer.
Anyway, where was I? “New Wave Coke” is a track that quickly shows off what Matadors are all about as they pull out all the stops, including handclaps and the always popular cowbell. I gotta have that cowbell on the track. Songs like “The Fresh” and “Ahead of My Time” dare you not to tap your feet at their catchiness. The twin guitars of Lars and Andreas swirl around in that buzzsaw way that many new wave garage rock bands do. Andreas’s lyrics are fairly nonsensical, but much like Bloc Party, you don’t notice what he’s talking about because it’s the rhythm of the words, not necessarily the content. The best comparison for Matadors is to a band like The Hives, only with a more hard rock edge, particularly on songs like “21st Century Monotony Disco” “Tango de la Muerte” and “Mere a Cipher.” The snakey (is that even a word?) “Like a Matador Pt 1” is also a standout.
I guess if there is a complaint about the album it’s that it runs a little long and the songs start to make you feel like you’ve eaten large amounts of chocolate: good for a little while, but once you keep getting more of it, the less you like it. Also, the album, while a fun listen for the most part, sounds awfully familiar to Bloc Party, The Hives, The Mooney Suzuki, Arctic Monkeys, etc. I was just surprised the band doesn’t have the word “The” in their name.
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