Literature - Arab Spring [Album Review]

Album cover from Literature’s bandcamp

After kicking around the local scene for a couple of years, Literature finally released a full-length last month, dropping it via bandcamp in the creative Chernobyl that extends roughly from December 26th to the middle of January. It's there now to download in any format at whatever price the buyer cares to pay, which is never not a good deal.

You might even be persuaded to spend more than $2 for Arab Spring when you hear it. Ten songs of infectious, jangly pop that, once heard, can be later reheard zinging around the corner of your lizard brain that never really gives a shit about your problems and is instead really just interested in keeping a party going. There's even some "Sweater Song"-esque party dialogue during the bridge of album closer "I Am Right Here". Arab Spring's musical touchstones are bros-against-the-world torch bearers from the late '70s like The Buzzcocks or The Modern Lovers, with a slapdash of dancey post-punk a la The Jam and pop-punk brattiness, 2002 vintage: all cymbals and pogo stick bass and trebly, overdriven surf rock guitars that ping around the top of the mix like little fireworks. If your nostalgia for simpler times is stoked by any of those bands, or any of the bands that have interpolated that sound for a contemporary label like Captured Tracks, then there's probably a part of you always in the mood for what Literature is offering.

Arab Spring is over and out in a brisk 22 minutes. The band don't waste time launching into hooky choruses that hit like an uptake of dopamine. They generally stick to the guitar-bass-drums template, but the melodic flourishes from other sources that do occasionally crop up are notable: the gentle piano chords in the bridge of opener "14 Seconds", the airy synth floating through the coda of "Criminal Kids", and the panning reverse-guitar on "O.J.", for example. And while the huge hooks and earworm solos are Literature's most obvious aural asset, the band's real secret weapon is its rhythm section. Drummer Mike Yaklin and bassist Seth Whaland are in lock-step from the get go, propelling the sound in interesting directions while guitarists Kevin Adickes and Nathan Cardaci riff and jingle-jangle in the upper registers. The title track shimmies along in run-of-the-mill garage-rock fashion before the chorus explodes with a driving four-on-the-floor beat, while the upstroked peels of guitar on "Push Up Bra" (which wouldn't have been entirely out of place on Is This It) and "Esquire Esquire" leave space for some melodic bass fills in the verses.

Other highlights include ready-made set closer "Criminal Kids" and "Rooney", whose swinging intro and divebomb surf riff have elicited a kind of Pavlovian response from all four of my limbs for the last month. But really, these are just my favorites. Arab Spring is chock full of catchy, frenetic party pop from beginning to end, and again, it's freely available to check out on Literature's bandcamp. Do yourself the favor of checking it out.

EDIT: As Austin Town Hall notes in the comments below, Square of Opposition Records is putting on a limited run of Arab Spring on vinyl. Pre-order here.

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