Album Review :: Why the Wires :: Flame Failures

Written by: Andrea Janov, CC2K Music Editor

Why the Wires :: Flame Failures :: Jetsam-Flotsam & One Percent Press

This starts off like a show, it feels like you are standing in a dark room and listening live. Why the Wires’ Flame Failures is not like anything else I listen to or have reviewed. I had a bit of a hard time putting my finger on just what to say about them. I did find myslef wondering if this is what post-punk is. I have never really been able to define that style concept.

Anyway, Flame Failures, is a cool mixing of styles from hardore, to garage, to new wave all can be claimed as an influence. I love the precise messiness of this album, it’s chaos is very calculated.

The first songs three on the album prime you for the rest of the tracks, they are totally different from one another, but set you up for the experience of Flame Failures. The first track, Crashed Home has elements of hardcore and garage rock, it is kind of messy and totally awesome. Hello Nurse is kinda weird in the most fantastic way, it has distorted music and hardcore vocals, with staccato cadence. It is almost like a spoken word poetry reading, but with some menacing music. Punch List could be a  Psychedelic Furs song with it’s  slow, moody, dark, gravelyness.

As the album progresses, the feeling of rawness is magnified, you feel as though you are just experiencing this album unfold. The Arm Will Lead the Way has a creepy vibe, a little bit new wave a little bit carnival, a little bit garage to create a song like I have never experienced. Tolls is the perfect ending to this album, it is heavy, slow, and totally extends into the air after the album is done.