Wildlife is one of those albums that’s really hard to have a confident opinion about. I’m sure you know the type: you know the music is good, and the band is obviously talented, but you can’t really say why it works. Just me? Oh.
Anyway, Headlights‘ Wildlife is that album. The sound has a certain haziness to it layered underneath driving guitar and keyboard riffs. The boy/girl vocal harmonies are prominent, and the singers’ hush-hush voices bring to mind Stars at points (especially “I Don’t Mind at All,” which would fit awesomely on Your Ex-Lover is Dead). It’s all done well, and there are quite a few standout moments that emerge from the haze, for instance, the ridiculously catchy guitar riff on album opener “Telephones” or the great buildup towards the end of “Dead Ends.”
Every song is well done to the point where I can’t find anything expressly wrong with the album. It’s pretty without being sentimental, and it’s rarely boring. Maybe my problem, then, is the sameness present song to song. Perhaps the shoegaze-y haze is too easy to drown in at points — granted, the acoustic-based strummer “Wisconsin Beaches” scales that back, but still — and the album loses some urgency as a result. Maybe the album runs a bit too long for its own good.
Hell if I know. Wildlife is still pretty damn good… but there’s still something that doesn’t seem right, something that makes me wonder how much staying power the album will have. But then again, maybe it’s just me. Who knows? You do! Try it out, broseph.
Headlights – “Get Going” [MP3]
So Sarah Records. Lovely. I know I’ll be at DC9 on the 25th. For certain.