FOR AGAINST
Echelons
I’m still scratching my head over this one, how the first album from 1986 by arguably the longest running US band dedicated to a love of That Early Eighties Post-Punk Gloom-Tinged Sound awaited being reissued for all these years (but thank you to Words on Music for doing just that!). Just about everything else is still readily available, but the point is, this is back, and it’s manna from heaven for folks like myself. For Against I always sorta knew of as this Midwest band who apparently really liked Joy Division and the Cure (oh, TWIST my arm), but it wasn’t until I heard their late eighties album December that I appreciated just how great they were — while their sound was clearly a synthesis and refining of their record collection, it was of a top notch sort, while singer Jeffrey Runnings’ voice in particular (light, high, not in a Jeff Buckley style, able to catch senses of desperation without ever once showboating or completely disappearing into the mix) being the key for For Against not simply being copyists. They’re still at it, bless ’em, and maybe the reappearance of this first bow is partially because that post-Interpol people are remembering that they weren’t the first Americans to crank up the digital delay pedals. Now can somebody like LTM do a definite overview of the Abcedarians, please?