It's always ironic to hear Tim Harrington sing calls for human connection after a career spent exemplifying the qualities most likely to drive others away. The megaphone-voiced lead singer of Les Savy Fav smooths the band's art-punk with gutsy volume and sharp sarcasm. In the band's legendary wild live shows, he sacrifices safety and dignity for the sake of an unforgettable spectacle. He's as naturally gifted a showman as punk singers come, and one of the last guys you'd assume is only concerned with whether or not material comes out.
However, as Les Savy Fav has aged in an institution, Harrington has increasingly exposed his softer side, often writing about the difficulty of maintaining close personal relationships. It might be strange to hear the same wild man famous for stripping down to a Speedo on stage and climbing the tallest object in sight sing fervently like, “It's hard to let love in when we're afraid of getting hurt.” in the group. sixth album OUI, LSF (on a song called “Somebody Needs a Hug”, in it).
It comes after a 14-year recording hiatus, during which the group occasionally toured but mostly focused on their day jobs, such as bassist Syd Butler and guitarist Seth Jabour's gigs anchoring the unlikely house band for Late Night with Seth Meyers, OUI, LSF continues the emotional streak that ran through its predecessor, Root for Ruin. In the tender “Dawn Patrol,” Harrington finds solace in the reassuring touch of his partner's hand. On the somber counterpart to “Don't Mind Me,” he wails about love that has faded into mere tolerance over time. It's the most bare, openly crying ballad he's ever tried.
One could argue that Harrington's growing candor has made Les Savy Fav a better band. It has certainly given them a wider range of moods. However, as with Root for Ruin, OUI, LSF he can't quite shake the feeling that his comedown songs take up space that could have been filled with bangers. Fortunately, this band can still rage convincingly when it counts: The album opens with an absolute pressure cooker, “Guzzle Blood,” which channels their heated art-rock through the Prodigy's five-alarm noise factory, all humming and honking horns. “Void Moon” and “Oi! Division' are both economical pit-starters, showcases for hot riffs and Harrington's frontman-as-Russian-roulette volatility.
At times, maturity is flattering. One of Harrington's periodic forays into Penthouse Forum territory, “Limo Scene”, returns to the crazy gender of “The Equestrian“, but this time amidst all the touching and pheromones, the detail that remains is a simple gesture of consent and affirmation, a whispered “I'm on it.” The album's stabs at youthful irreverence are less graceful. With its hokey appropriations of old LL Cool J and Usher lyrics, “Legendary Tippers” pushes the band into corny dad joke territory. It's a nod to an earlier, sillier era of the band, a past they can't quite let go of, even though they've moved past it.
Like their peer Marnie Stern, who returned from a similarly lengthy studio hiatus last year with an album that picked up right where the last one left off, Les Savy Fav aren't humoring any notion of reinvention. When you have a sound so unique, so established, so inimitable, there's no shame in letting it drive. However, given the way time has always intrigued Les Savy Fav—their 2004 seminal collection inches marked their evolution by collecting seven years of singles in reverse chronological order—it's a little disappointing that the latest album doesn't have more to show for the passing of so much of it. Double that inches documented has since passed Root for RuinYet OUI, LSF it plays more like a sequel than a new chapter.
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