MAGNETA LANE
Dancing With Daggers
Paper Bag Records
· Magneta Lane’s follow up to last year’s Constant Lover EP, fails to deliver the full length goods.
I really wanted to like this record. Magneta Lane’s Constant Lover EP was a loud, wound up burst of pop-punk, leading me to believe that this full length would be, well, more. Instead, they’ve offered up a couple of stellar tracks and half a dozen others of subdued static, and what I think is lyrically a concept album about knives, love and other tragic emo musings. Better than the sad bastard self-loathing of other imitative softies, but too often straying into ‘dear diary’ territory.
The band uses all of its energy on the first couple of tracks, making the later half of what is a short album lackadaisical in execution. And a great first half it is – Lexi Valentine’s vocals are sultry and intimidating, and French’s bass carries it all, like Dick Dale holed-up with a bunch of Cure records – listen to "Bridge to Terabithia" and "Wild Gardens" for a taste of what should have been.
Otherwise, Magneta Lane seem confused, unsure of what they’re making – by the end you can see them eyeing each other suspiciously. You’d think with Death From Above 1979 producing the album you’d be hearing Magneta Lane covering You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine, straight-up rock. Instead, it reminds one of the god awful remix album DFA perpetrated on fans this past fall. What the hell?
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