Tapes 'n Tapes- Walk It Off

I wish someone would explain to me why Dave Fridmann sees fit to work with young, up and coming indie rock bands. I get that his aesthetic works with bands who need a shot in the arm, like Low and Sleater-Kinney, but he is definitely one of the more distinctive and obvious producing hands in the business today. With his piles of instruments and distorted, over-driven, and compressed sound, you never really know how a band will come through his wringer. This isn't so exciting and necessary for young bands, however. Both Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! and Tapes 'n Tapes released debut albums of effortless, self-assured indie rock that were some of the most exciting and fresh releases of their respective years. And then they recruited Dave Fridmann to produce their second albums, leading to dramatic changes in their sound before it was strictly called for.

This isn't to say that Some Loud Thunder or Walk It Off are terrible. In fact, I've warmed up to both via repeat listens. But after going back to their first releases, it's hard to feel that the changes were for the better. I'm a well compensated lobbyist to get bands to expand and/or change their style on subsequent albums, but both Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! and Tapes 'n Tapes lost a good deal of what appealed to people about them in the first place by doing so. Certainly their second albums are more experimental, nuanced, and definitely fit under the header of "albums that grow on you" for it, three things I have ready to paste into reviews to chastise other bands for not doing, but in this case I can't say I, or many other people, would have been very unhappy if both bands had released second albums that kept some of the immediacy and catchy hooks of their debuts.

Part of the appeal of Tapes 'n Tapes's debut was its ability to display obvious influences but not outright steal from them. Pixies, Pavement, and Modest Mouse are the clear starting points, but The Loon, in general, was like a glorious love letter to indie rock of all stripes. People sometimes say that music critics are just frustrated musicians (those who can, do; those who can't, criticize), so I think a sizeable portion of those of us who loved the band love them because they were fans who managed to wrangle their favorite bands' sounds in new, interesting ways. Another part of the appeal of their debut, for me at least, was its spacious production. The slower songs like 'Manitoba', 'Omaha', and 'In Houston' revealed a band perfectly capable of restraint, letting every delicate guitar or keyboard note sail through the air. Then there were the addictive, instantly enjoyable rock songs like 'Insistor' and 'Cowbell' which showed a young band capable of great things, and still greater things to come.

So why is it that Walk It Off has practically none of these elements??

I give the band credit for trying something different with their second album. It was a gamble, but as with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, it didn't completely pay off. Paradoxically, while shedding some of their more obvious influences, Tapes 'n Tapes have actually become less distinctive in the process. I don't think I'm alone in thinking that this set of songs is more indebted to sounds (both in the lyric writing and way instruments are used) than songs. Moreover, the production is another atrocious Dave Fridmann mess. Gone is the relaxed, spacious atmosphere of The Loon. In its place is Fridmann's now-patented "compress and distort things needlessly; pile on instruments needlessly; try to make every album sound like a Flaming Lips album needlessly" style. While this worked for Sleater-Kinney and Low, it worked because those bands were in need of a new direction. Here, his production only furthers the sense that Tapes 'n Tapes are moving away from everything that made me like them in the first place. I could accept that the band wanted their second album to sound really different, or that the songs wouldn't be as immediately catchy, but not both at once. Speaking of not-as-catchy: I defy anyone to name a song on Walk It Off as good as even 'Just Drums' or '10 Gallon Ascots' from The Loon. The closest the band comes is 'Hang Them All' and 'Lines', two songs that, not coincidentally, feel the closest to the spirit and sense of fun of their debut.

Spending some time with Walk It Off always tempers my disappointment somewhat. It's not a bad album by any means, but as soon as I go back to their debut, it instantly seems like an inferior, needlessly experimental sophomore effort. Look, not every band needs to revolutionize their sound on their second release. Also, I don't think any band needs such a distinctive, forceful producer as Dave Fridmann to work on said second release. Had the band stuck a bit closer to their debut, had the band not worked with Fridmann, had this been their third or fourth album instead of their second...perhaps then, Walk It Off could have been a resounding success. As it is, though, Walk It Off, like Some Loud Thunder, is a very different beast from the debut, and one that acquired its "different-ness" at the expense of most of what made us like the band in the first place.