The 80’s were a wild time that was mostly full of bad ideas. That will happen when everyone is doing blow and not wearing condoms; brains frying from copious loads of coke and untreated syphilis. Despite that fact, the 80’s were full of sweet melodramatic dance jams. You had The Cure, The Smiths, and Tears For Fears. Time has been fairly unkind to the mainstream hits of the era such as Wham and Rico Suave, while the tracks from the aforementioned bands seem to get better with age. Sure the lyrics are sad but for the most part they are party songs. It was Emo before Emo. It’s laughable and enjoyable all at the same time. Synth, drums, keys, and vague sad guy lyrics, what the hell is wrong with that? Nothing. There is nothing wrong with that. I needed more of that in my life. Little did I know that there was a current band incorporating all of these things. This Week’s Artist of The Week: Tanlines.
Tanlines (Jesse Cohen & Eric Emm) hail from Brooklyn, NYC. They first got together in 2008 when the two met while Jesse’s former band, Professor Murder, came into Brothers Studio in NYC to record an EP. The studio happened to be operated by Eric Emm and his brother Josh. Eric and Jesse quickly hit it off and they began writing songs together. Unlike the usual band come up, there was no jam sesh to kick things off. They would sit down and carefully construct each track. Their first tracks weren’t even original songs. They got their start remixing songs by other artists. In 2008 they created a track and simply ripped the vocs from Telepathe’s Chrome On It.
After a few singles and 2 EPs (Settings, S.A.W.) Tanlines finally released their first full length in March of 2012 titled Mixed Emotions. I’m sure every reviewer under the fucking sun said this about the album when it first came out, but why don’t we
continue to beat a dead horse. Here it goes. I have mixed emotions about Mixed Emotions. That’s right. I just did that.
When it’s good. It’s really good. They have pop tracks that are everything I love about the 80’s and more. All Of Me is exceptional. It’s got the hook, it’s got the arrangement, and it has vocals that kinda sound like he’s singing and yawning at the same time. Almost like he has something better to be doing. I dunno why, but I’m super into that right now. If MGMT existed in the 80’s they would have been making songs like this.
Lynchian music video to accompany this shit.
Not The Same fits into that category, killer electronica and dance elements without ever strictly being a electronica/dance song. Jesse really belts it out on this one. Probably my favorite track on the record, it’s throwback pop perfection.
While these songs are hot stuff as, are Brothers which is probably their most Tears For Fears style track,
and Rain Delay,
There are some issues with the others. Now I’m rarely on the same page as PITCHFORK, especially after the Andrew W.K. debacle, but on this issue they said something about this record that I couldn’t have worded any better. Mentioning some songs lack a “big payoff”. I agree completely. While I enjoy the album in it’s entirety, some songs meander without a rise and fall. They tread water. Granted the water is warm and delightful, they just lack that emotional crescendo you search for in truly great music. That’s okay though, this first effort is pretty great, I’ll be blasting it in my car for the foreseeable future.  Defiantly worth checking out. Hope you dig them.
Big Hugs,
Kelly
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