The Top 40 Songs of 2014
Young Widows – “Kerosene Girl”
Couch Slut – “Replacement Addiction — Listen on Bandcamp, here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u78q-yJG4JM
Planning for Burial – “Where You Rest Your Head at Night”
The cross-bleeding margins of metal and hardcore continue to be more interesting than their purest strains. Young Brooklyn band Couch Slut are an intimidating, exhilarating mess. “Replacement Addiction” starts off as pure spleen-vent, the possible work of a limited band with the sole purpose of providing a moment’s catharsis. They get past that in the first minute though, segueing into a double-time skronk that leaves you wrong-footed, unsure what’s coming next. “Kerosene Girl”, the best ever song by veteran Kentucky sludge-rockers Young Widows, doesn’t lack snarl. But it’s open mix gives space for a badass Nick Cave-y vocal. They’re even ballsy enough to move it all forward on a steady beat they cribbed from a disco 12”. Planning for Burial, aka New Jersey mope-team captain Thom Wasluck, pounds his guitar to a smooth mush over the course of “Where You Rest Your Head at Night”’s eight depressive minutes. He keeps the feedback to a low nagging hum, which lets you hear all the effort he’s gone to making it so pretty otherwise. Mixing shoegaze’s introverted blurs and post-rock’s slow-mo twinkling with metal’s emotive dread has been tried before, but this song finds Wasluck certain he’s the only one who’s ever felt quite this shitty.