Lifeguard - Crowd Can Talk / Dressed In Trenches

The merging of two EPs recorded and released in two separate sessions within the space of 12 months repackaged for Lifeguard’s signing with Matador, ‘Crowd Can Talk’ / ’Dressed In Trenches’ is riled-up and rambunctious. Hammered out here in dazzling light are honest, sweaty thrills of dingy basement rock; the timeless joys of high-octane youth having intangible-yet-urgent points to prove. From the besieging thrusts of ‘I Know, I Know’ or ‘Typecast’ or the darker rumblings heard on ‘17-18 Lovesong’ or ‘Ten Canisters OFB’, parcelling all this energy is an impressively wild production. As the vocals strain through the untamed swarms of fuzz, the bass crunches through the speakers, and guitars clang with all Beelzebub’s fury, it’s not hard to picture that - if this were the Scott Pilgrim universe - a tiger’s form would emerge from these swathes of static and rage forward into the fray. It’s nothing short of pure, menacing excitement.