Solids - Blame Confusion

A Canadian duo that make quite a bit of noise, using quite a bit of fuzz and quite a bit of sweat. Sound familiar?

After the ascendancy of Japandroids back in 2009 (or post-‘Post-Nothing’, if you will) just about every all-male duo making anything more than a slither of grungy noise couldn’t find them anywhere more than half a sentence away from the Vancouver pair. Most of these comparisons were unjustified. With Montréal twosome Solids, it’s spot-on. Whether it’s the just-about distorted vocals, the melodic yet driven riffs or the insistent drumming, the pervading ennui or reined-in angst, Xavier Germain-Poitras and Louis Guillemette probably couldn’t sound more like the far less glamorously named Brian ‘n Dave if they tried.

Needless to say, ‘Blame Confusion’ is great.

Semi-brutal riffs (‘Over The Sirens’) find themselves masked by a kind of post-hangover brain fog, while gang vocals (‘Traces’, ‘Blame Confusion’) veer between tired, angry and tuneful. It’s sometimes drone-like, sometimes punk, and elsewhere far too hazy to be either. It’s angular in parts (‘Cold Hands’) and slower in others (‘Terminal’). It spends its whole ten tracks threatening to break out in to full-blown epic – but remains able to stop short every time.

Sure, the tracks tend to bleed together, and yes they are so much like those other noisy Canadians, but when the sounds are this good – does that really matter?