When it comes to the resurgence of all things shoegaze, only one
question remains: how literal do you want it? If your answer is “very,”
you can take your pick of Asobi Seksu, the Radio Dept., or Mahogany. If
your answer is “so literal that their referents are crushed under the
weight of their references,” then meet Exploding Head, one of
the best guitar albums of the year.
If you can imagine a giant dam that separated the past decade of
tidy rock from the noisy morass of the decade before it, you can now
imagine Brooklyn’s A Place to Bury Strangers bursting through that dam
like the Kool-Aid Man. Pointing out the presence of My Bloody
Valentine’s influence on a band like this is like citing the influence
of Pasteur on milk drinkers. What glows about Exploding Head are
the details — the many strands of shoegaze they hunt down and
beat up.
“I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart” sounds like a
Swirlies song set aflame; “Keep Slipping Away” could be a refugee from
the Cure’s Head on the Door but for its resin-hit lapses into
effects-rack tunnelvision; “Smile When You Smile” balances the Jesus
and Mary Chain’s reserve with Th’ Faith Healers’ volatility; “Lost
Feeling” claws at its own minimalism. Exploding Head is less an
interpretation of a forgotten sound than a restoration of an abandoned
mission. (Mute)
