The Features, ‘Exhibit A’
By user • Sep 30th, 2004 • Category: Album Reviews
People say timing is everything.
When The Features released a self-titled debut EP in 1997, its fusion of keyboards, disco-like beats and guitars came a few years too early to be lumped with the current next-wave mania.
The band’s first full-length relies less on the keys and more on a thick, fuzzed-out wall-of-guitars with hints of the Elephant 6 Recording Company of the 90’s.
The Sparta, Tenn. quartet seems destined to be always in the right place at the wrong time.
The band’s keyboard roots aren’t entirely augmented. “The Idea Of Growing Old” and “Me & The Skirts” still use the instrument as a primary focus.
Yet, the remaining 10 tracks bury the keys beneath a blistering onslaught of tightly orchestrated, fiercely intelligent rock ’n’ roll.
The strained urgency in Matthew Pelham’s voice showcases what The Hives might sound like if Pelle Almqvist had grown up listening to The Fall and The Cure instead of The Stooges.
In short, it’s rocking while controlled; heavy yet delicate at times; challenging but embraceable.
And if history serves as any indication for what’s to come, we should be hearing a lot more of this sound in six years.
Northern Star, Sept. 30, 2004
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