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June 27, 2005
I become taller in warm weather
Abandoned Pools - The Catalyst
Upon the dissolution of any relationship, I think it's common for grief and regret (or anger perhaps) to give way to a sort of cold, irrational desperation where you wish you could find the ontological equivalent of a reset button- just some kind of otherworldly antidote that would either restore you to the way you were before the relationship, or maybe to the happiest moments you had within it. Tommy Walter, the brains behind Abandoned Pools, sings about that kind of biting desire in 'The Catalyst', "I wish I could take something beautiful/to make you fall in love again". It's a bare and blunt way to express the sick hope that maybe, just maybe, there's one little variable that you could change that would tip the scales back in your favor.
'The Catalyst' has got a nice, crunchy feel to it, especially in the movement of the guitars (which sound the way the burnt edge of a crepe tastes; if you can get past the lameness of my comparing guitars to crepes). But there's something particularly compelling about the drums and the vocals in this song- in the way they come together and make 'the Catalyst' a little bit more than just a 'fuck you' to an ex. Tommy Walter sings in the same wispy tenor as Brent Knopf from Menomena (c.f. one of the best tracks on "I Am the Fun Blame Monster", 'Strongest Man in the World') and the percussion patterns in 'The Catalyst' remind me a lot of the tight little packages of rhythm that Menomena use to build their tracks from the ground up. (Plus, hey, I didn't know this before either, but Tommy Walter is one of the founding members of the Eels.)
'The Catalyst' is taken from "the Reverb" EP, which is in stores and probably available all over the place. Abandoned Pools have a new album coming out this fall called "Armed to the Teeth", which should be pretty interesting to hear.
p.s. New contest coming soon. Steely Dan Week on hold for the forseeable future due to all my guest contributors mysteriously disappearing...
Posted by Kevin at June 27, 2005 01:00 AM
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