Album of the Week: No Age- Nouns

There's a phenomenon for cases of moderate to severe hypothermia known as "paradoxical undressing." There are theories as to why it happens (maybe the intense cold affects the part of the brain that regulates body temperature or maybe blood vessels give out from exertion and thus a surge of blood reaches the limbs and warms them) but since it doesn't happen to every victim and it's dangerous to test, scientists still aren't sure. The first time I heard about this I was reminded of how you're actually more in danger in the desert with less clothing on because lots of light clothing will shield your skin from the sun and keep you from getting sunstroke and sunburn as quickly as you would otherwise. I bring both of these up because it reminds me of the strange phenomenon of listening to noise-y music: you get so used to the ugliness of it that it wraps around to pretty. I don't know why it happens, but I think some immoral parent should raise their children on atonal noise and then expose them to pretty harmonies and see what the results are.

Anyway, this very notion lies at the heart of the noise pop masterpiece Loveless by My Bloody Valentine, an album that is every bit as loud and piercing as the Velvet Underground's best but is somehow incredibly beautiful and warm. I suppose noise and feedback themselves aren't inherently cold or warm, ugly or pretty. It's all in how it's used. This is a lesson that the band No Age have taken to heart.

Nouns is interesting and successful in the way that all the best noise-pop is: it plays with the borders between the inherent dichotomy of the genre itself while maintaining a unique, singular sound. Though only a duo, No Age recall bigger, better-known bands like the aforementioned My Bloody Valentine and noise-pop elder statesmen like Sonic Youth. Where they differentiate themselves is with their use of noise, electronics, and the dynamics of a two-person band. Unlike the less successful noise-pop of Times New Viking, No Age understand that you don't need awful production to make your songs seem experimental and dense. Even with the poppier moments like 'Here Should Be My Home' the album shows an understanding of what makes this kind of music fascinating and timeless; as I alluded to earlier, the best noise-pop concerns itself with the borders between things like noise and pop (duh), warmth and coldness, loud and quiet, ugly and pretty, machine and natural. The instrumentals of Nouns are perhaps the best place to note this, particularly 'Impossible Bouquet' which has an Animal Collective-circa-Sung Tongs acoustic guitar buried in a hive of guitar loops and electronic noise. And while I don't know the words too well, I find the songs with vocals surprisingly catchy despite being buried in fuzz or distortion. Again, Times New Viking are the opposite of the spectrum, a place where I can't really hear their songs and what little comes through doesn't leave an impression.

Nouns is one of those great albums that improves with each listen while giving you the notion that the best is still ahead. I like to call this 'The Bends effect', named after the second album by Radiohead. I loved The Bends but in the context of the rest of that band's discography it comes off like an engagement ring rather than the wedding, honeymoon, or marriage. Wherever No Age end up from here, Nouns will remain an excellent piece of beautiful noise-pop and one of 2008's best "unexpected, from out of left field" releases.