Electricity In Our Homes - Dear Shareholder

By now, we are all very familiar with the ‘rock band’ format. It’s fairly standard. Guitar, bass, drums, vocals – that’s what’s essential (keyboard optional). Nowadays, the inventiveness of a rock band is shown in part by the addition or subtraction of instruments from the norm. This of course isn’t to say that excellent or eccentric music can’t be made within this format. There are too many examples of that to enumerate (if I name one you won’t be able to stop me). But a certain ‘Square One’ has developed for bands to start with and attempt to work out of.

The newest offering of Electricity In Our Homes, ‘Dear Shareholder’, is a fairly standard lo-fi rock album. The largely unpolished mix of the tracks lends the album a feel that is generally quite ‘raw’. Many songs, such as ‘Oranges’, are quite reminiscent of ‘Leisure’-era Blur (even ‘Modern Life’ to a certain extent). Much of the vocals, which are often delivered in a hybrid of shouting and singing, recall Los Campesinos!. The final song, ‘Play It Over,’ sounds so much like a Syd Barrett song that this reviewer checked to see if it was a cover.

These mundane comparisons merely serve to express that ‘Dear Shareholder’ is accessible and familiar. A first listen will give the listener a very good grasp on the album, but repeated listens will find the hooks and eccentricities softly sneaking into your brain. The album has just enough diversity to remain captivating throughout, but not enough to make it exceptional. However, the subtle nuances that reveal themselves upon careful attention show the potential this band holds. The ambient keyboard whooshes looming in the background of ‘Nothing, If Not Lovely’ show an impressive attention to detail, but the fact that the line is nearly too subtle makes the listener wonder if the band was holding back their creative impulses. That same question also arises in the bass part of that song, which at first contains the incredibly dissonant tri-tone interval but then fades it out.

The most obvious way Electricity In Our Homes indulge their experimental tendencies is in the transitions between the sections of a song. The band also has a refreshing affinity for intros (‘As Fast As Lighening’ was a favorite example). Some of these shifts are pleasantly surprising and really elevate the song. Others are rather jarring and disorienting. ‘We Are All Trooping Off In A Big Old Gang’ contains both. The song begins with an infectious driving energy, the straight eighth notes of the guitar and bass harking back to punk. Suddenly yet seamlessly, the guitar drops into half time and becomes dissonant. A little less suddenly (but just as the listener is really getting into the new groove), the vocals become more melodic over standard guitar chord plucking/strumming. The tug from simmering chaos to epic indie guitar chorus was quite unwelcome. Dissonance pops up throughout ‘Dear Shareholder’ but generally lasts nowhere near long enough – it shows its bold head and then all too quickly ducks back to its lair to make way for a more standard riff (the interlude on ‘South Of France’ is another great example of this phenomenon).

The single ‘Oranges’ is notable – other than the catchiness of the tune and that it is very enjoyable to listen to, it boasts the applause-worthy phenomenon of ending with a not-completely-in-tune bass solo. The refrain lyrics ‘You’re unhappy because you don’t know you are happy’ also deserves acclaim (it almost counterbalances the overly blunt lamentation of the predicament of the dying hospitable patient in ‘Buddy Lemonade’).

‘Appletree’ is the song that continues to stick out the most on repeated listens, however. The guitar and bass lines (against keyboard flurries swelling in and out in the background) seem to be dancing around one another. The repeated groove therefore paradoxically lends the track a floating feeling. In the foreground is a captivating female melody, whose evolution over the same background gives the song a disarming fluidity. The greatest touch is the muted trumpets that come in after the refrain with a simple yet memorable line that counteracts the vocals perfectly.

‘Dear Shareholder’ shows the signs of a band struggling to make the most out of a time-tested musical format. There are moments when they succeed, and there are moments when they are entirely too shy. Electricity In Our Homes have created an album that is worth listening to, because it is enjoyable for the qualities it possesses. However, the band will create an album that must be listened to when they begin to indulge themselves.