album of the week: 11.4

We Are The Physics
Your Friend, The Atom
(2012)



why you'll love it:  hectic bounce off the wall fun, with great lyrics
why you'll hate it:  The band struggles outside of their own niche


With bias and hype tampered as much as possible, I still can say that Your Friend, The Atom is one of this year's best albums.  Probably the only release this year to live up to its hype.  For as high-powered and spastic We Are The Physics may sound in performance, their work output is slower than a 56k modem.  Their 2008 "debut" LP (We Are The Physics Are OK At Music) was mostly comprised of singles from the two preceding years; and there's hardly been anything since.   In comparison, their clones in the far-east, Polysics, have released two EPs and two albums in the very same four year span; and in the midst of a major lineup change!

Comparisons to other new wave / post punk bands seems to be the heaviest burden this band carries.  With Your Friend, The Atom finally out of cryostasis, We Are The Physics hasn't exactly stepped out of Polysics' shadow, the sun has just changed position.  WATP has maintained its high volume, head exploding spaz rock, where Polysics has fallen further down the technopop rabbit hole.

One shadow they have stepped out of is Devo's.  Now let me preface this by saying I really enjoyed Devo's reunion album in 2010, Something For Everybody.  It wasn't amazing, but was good (and even that exceeded my expectations).  Songs on this LP, though, like "Dildonics" and "All My Friends Are Jpegs" are volatile concoctions of crudeness, counter-culture, and societal relevance that Gerald Casale WISHES he could write today.

And finally, a shadow they have appeared to step further into with this release is one of the not-so-well-known spazoids from the 80's, Cardiacs.  Of course their UK accents only make comparisons more obvious, but there is no doubt these songs are erratic and unpredictable from moment to moment, just like when Cardiacs were in their prime.  "Cluedo" and "(e.g. Apollo 11)"  are delightfully mad, and two of the best on here.

They may be stuck with em, but at least it's good company to be in;  and slowly, We Are The Physics are carving out their own new-wave punk niche.  Ping-ponging harmonies, singing in rounds, and unpredictable cadences almost seem iconic to them by now.  The aggressive chanting and clapping in "Napoleon Loves Josaphine" and "Goran Ivanisavic" almost sound like what would happen if football hooligans did a ton of blow and raided an arcade.  And it isn't just frantic yelps and stutters. WATP add a little bit more studio synthesizers into the mix, as well as a tiny bit of vocoding, and even at one point… chowing down on a bag of crisps?

Once the comparison game runs thin, this is still a TOTALLY FUN album, with little to slow it down.  They step out of their comfort zone a bit, and it shows in "And So Now We're Wrestling With The Body Politic" and "Olivia Newton Bomb", but when they are doing what they do best, nobody can touch them.  I haven't heard the new Polysics yet, and Man or Astro-Man? has a release next year; but for the first time, it feels like those bands have a challenge to meet, rather than the other way around.