White Denim - Let’s Talk About It

Harking back to an older age, White Denim’s ethos has always been to educate the new generation of music lovers in the old school of rawk. And what more perfect way to start educating them than with this first single? Everything here is a mesh of what was old, and, with a subtle bit of twisting and formulating, White Denim make it new once again. A dash of punk, a rollicking 60s surf drumbeat, a psychedelic bridge and some good ol’ fashioned Austin, Texas rock n’ roll flair.

James Petralli’s vocals add another element that is all White Denim’s own though. His slurred howls push this song from being a foot-stomping affair into a positively frantic one. When he shouts ‘Let’s react to it!’, you immediately want to react, to dance. But this is one of those rare songs that compel you to react, yet once you actually get down to it, you’re stumped as to where to begin. Sure the rhythm is there, the Kings Of Leon-style riff establishes itself early, and the chorus is simple enough, but just how do you dance to this much of a spaz-out without looking spazzy yourself? The answer is that you’re meant to - and the part where everything stops becoming tune and just becomes noises? That’s not a rest, that’s just for you to slow down.

The full-length version of this song is perhaps a little too long, the energy is lost towards the end, but the radio edit makes for the most perfect sub-three minute workout you’re ever likely to hear. This song is designed for a crowd of sweaty people to jerk around and run into each other, there’s nothing intelligent here, but if you don’t react to it, there’s something wrong with you.