![Turkey Time Means Focusing on Football, Film, and Food! [Extra Extra]](http://austinist.com/assets_c/2009/11/4118824456_b29afe8992_m-thumb-110x110-461242.jpg)
Turkey Time Means Focusing on Football, Film, and Food! [Extra Extra]
J. Tillman at the Mohawk - Giveaway
Show Preview: Brackett & Co., Real Estate
In some ways, Saturdays = Youth is a companion piece. While less dramatic by a click or two and, perhaps intentionally, less cohesive, it is still a solid, balanced album with hooks to spare and a hypnotic tendency to infuse it's reckless energy in the listener, as though we were forsaking the rest of music and escaping forever with it to the Casbah.
The album softly creeps into the bedroom at dawn on "You, Appearing", building up from a basic, forgivably artificial-sounding, piano into a breathy vocal call-and-response. As it collapses into reverse-tracked contrails, "Kim & Jessie" burst onto the scene, running, holding hands. According to Anthony, they're "they're crazy 'bout romance/and illusions" but "somebody lurks in the shadows/somebody listening". Is the relationship doomed? Who the hell are these star-crossed lovers? It doesn't really matter. This song kills, and probably ended up on the Billboard Top 20 Hits of 1987 in a parallel universe, although we'll never know. At first, "Skin Of The Night" is a bit too much, but even with lyrics about wet blouses and nails digging into chests, the cheesiness is more than acceptable as the listener can't help become absorbed by the stilted, hyper processed drums and intertwined male-female chorus vox. The 2000s equivalent of Bonnie Tyler and Meatloaf's bombastic squall, perhaps, but determinedly serious and as dangerous and cold as black ice.
"Graveyard Girl", a snappy number that weighs in on this album's strong first half, is the best New Order song they never recorded, yet there's a tinge of The Raveonettes in the bouncy, propulsive back beat. "Coleurs" follows this standout track, a dour, dancy instrumental, and, somewhat curiously, based on the strength of "Kim & Jessie", the first single released from this album. "Up!" sounds like something playing in the bathroom at a Vietnamese restaurant in Blade Runner. Not necessarily a dig on the song, but 'nuff said. The spiritual link between BTDHS and this album is "We Own The Sky", sprinting full-bore to an unknown destination. It's drastic synth arpeggios and relentless build up, complete with a chirping female chorus line and a climax of distant, reverb laden explosions. But wait: we spoke to soon as "Highway Of Endless Dreams" begins with a brief, dramatic soliloquy straight off the last disc: "7am. Dusty road. I'm gonna drive until it burns my bones..." Cue another lopsided ramping of orgasmic synth layers and droning guitar strumming.
Fortunately, before the album has a chance to do another impression of itself, "Too Late" stumbles in shakily. Finding its center of gravity, it progresses insistently and delicately through what could be the set's prettiest melody while the kitchen sink never gets thrown into the mix. Relieved of this unnecessary ballast, the song soars. The explosive "Dark Moves of Love" shakes the listener out of this brief lull, before an expansive, 11-minute ambient piece closes everything off, another freezing sunrise over lost lovers and clear-eyed Casanovas.
Having had time to catch your breath, you realize how successful this music is in transporting one into the smoldering core of these dire situations involving fabricated characters and their doomed, glossy passions. It's a teeth-chattering, eye-wateringly intense weekend getaway you can crank up any day of the week.
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