Together PANGEA

Finally, the highly anticipated LP from (together) Pangea arrives and its a slash and burn bit of jumble and rumble that's payoff for anyone who'd been waiting with fevered anticipation since Ghostbot dropped Killer Dreams and uncorked the vat of weird, nervy, melodic nuggets the band had been sitting on. They make the official jump to Harvest from their homestead at Burger and, as expected by the early singles, it sees the band wade even further into pop's waters without ever leaving behind their cratered punk punch or trademark ragged delivery. Title cut, "Badillac," has floated around for a while and its built on a solid set of strums and shouts that feel bigger than the room can contain; yet still the track sits back into itself nicely with the kind of sweat soaked shimmy that can only be broken up by a rail splitting harmonica / guitar back-and-forth on the finish.

The rest of the LP is no slouch either, matching the current amplifier assault of cracked guitar slingers like Ty Segall (inevitable comparisons abound) and John Dwyer. Though let it be said that this is standing tall in the pop canon right next to Cronin's MCII for breakout hits of the past few years. The cuts here cook with the constant threat of boiling over and that means the volume should be twisted till the knob can't be turned any further. That is until "Offer" and "Where The Night Ends" come to soothe the burn with the power-jangle and accompanying fragile croon that opens like a sore wound, a trait that's come to mark each of their releases between the bouts of fury. Though, honestly, the softer punch on those two are by no means reason to dip the volume completely. "River" rears its head again in a fuller version, and even though its an old standby, its actually a check mark in the 'pro' column. Somehow the album wouldn't seem complete without it. Only sad fact is that they cut "All Creation" from the original rumblings of this release, a pop gem if there ever was one. Otherwise, this one winds up immediately at the top of the 2014 heap and you should be procuring a copy before you finish this review.

Listen:


Support the artist. Buy it: HERE