Health - Get Color

The dawning of a new age: the year industrial noise became something sexy. ‘Die Slow’ has something of an anthemic, lights-turned-off feel to it, full of possibilities, letting your imagination roam free. Deep, dark, driven, it’s this pulsing, swaggering hit that will make waves, whereas the rest of ‘Get Color’ feels almost like the following of trends. Draw a parallel with Liars’ ‘Drum’s Not Dead’ and you’ve just about had your fun with HEALTH’s latest offering. Though not necessarily: initially, yes, the album is tightened and restricted by the urge to sit pretty with fans of previous work, but at the same time, that makes this their most experimental offering yet.

‘Get Color’ isn’t all dark corners and insomnia. ‘Severin’ and ‘We Are Water’ blend Thom Yorke-esque vocals with a grand, 80s metal guitar line, whilst chaos ensues behind the scenes. Said chaotic noise is an element all tracks on ‘Get Color’ have in common, and it almost feels like a retreat by the band every time, as if they’re resting on their laurels and playing it safe. Ultimately you would feel at ease, comfortable and pretty uninterested if it weren’t for the break-neck hullabaloo; that’s not how HEALTH want you to react to this record, the most consistently twisted collection of music unearthed this year. Coherent in its ability to punch holes through your heart, it grabs your head with intensity and pummels you into oblivion. Safe it is not.

It can be difficult to see through the pretentious song titles, but ‘Death +’ really does sound like the next step on from death, and ‘Eat Flesh’ is pretty self-explanatory. For every potential mis-step you think you might have stumbled across, you’re required to trace your path and develop an alternative argument, which just makes ‘Get Color’ all the more convincing as the play counts add up. And anyway, if you can’t see past the guts and the gore of this audacious record, you’ll still be able to have fantastic sex to ‘Die Slow’.