SUPERSYSTEM
A Million Microphones
Touch and Go
· A million times better than its predecessor.
The new record from D.C. dance-rock merchants Supersystem slays their last one. That simple.
The group’s debut, Always Never Again, was hampered by a need to find common ground among their influences (fidgety post-hardcore, humanized disco and Latin polyrhythms – the band used to record for Dischord as El Guapo) and handicapped by a serious deficiency in the lyric department. A Million Microphones is the record that the brightest moments of their career hinted at, but until now never followed through on.
The best spots on the new record find Supersystem firing on all cylinders, the oddly-accented drumming meshing perfectly with the sawtooth keyboards and sparse guitar. The whole thing comes together like fellow D.C. oufit the Candy Machine, with its minimal melodies and David Byrne-esque front man, jamming with the rhythm section from New York avant-disco act Liquid Liquid.
But rug-cutting hipsters beware – it’s a little slower than the last outing. There’s no instant-hit ass-shaker like "Defcon." What A Million Microphones does have is hooks that will burrow into your brain like earwigs, extremely tight musical arrangements and lyrics that (thank Christ) won’t make you turn the stereo off and give up on humanity altogether.
Speaking of things spoken, the song topics this time around would do just as well as a master’s thesis if you set ’em off with a colon and tacked on some pretentious-sounding academese. Howzabout "Not the Concept: The Realization of Society’s Effects on the Environment vs. The Essential Futility of One Individual’s Attempts to Change Their Lifestyles to Offset Same?" Perhaps "Eagles Fleeing Eyries: Avian Anthropomorphism as Metaphor for the Geopolitical Climate?" Maybe "The Pinnacle of Experience: Parent-Offspring Generational Disconnect, Experiential Subjectivity and the Utterly Incommunicable Nature of the Psychedelic Experience?"
Remind me, why didn’t I ever do postgraduate work? Jests aside, hearing the Supersystem lads singing about something interesting sure beats the hell out of "I live above a candy store," and the other sub-Interpol groaner couplets from their debut.
That’s not to say that A Million Microphones is without its flaws, specifically "White Light White Light." Near as I can tell, this is slated to be the album’s single and it’s a piece of utter crap. There’s some bullshit fake-Brit accents, the insipid lyrics that made Always Never Again so frustrating ("white light, white light, what butterflies are made of" and a yelpy staccato delivery that grabs the Killers by their shoulders and screams "me too, goddamn it!"
Otherwise, A Million Microphones finds Supersystem finally delivering on all the promises Always Never Again made.
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