While their earlier works oozed with potential, the band repeatedly shot itself in the foot with its frenzied approach to songwriting. On 2005’s We’re Animals, however, Numbers showed signs of settling down a bit, allowing their songs some much-needed room to breathe. With Now You Are This, Numbers’ maturation is complete and the result is an impressive melding of noise-rock and pop hooks.
Where earlier Numbers albums revelled in spastic delivery and a childlike attention span, Now You Are This finds the band branching out. “Kosmos Love” crackles with the experimental intensity of peak-era Sonic Youth, while the throbbing, repetitive bass line on “Fantasy Life” recalls German Krautrock and “What Happened to You” closes the album with a delirious cacophony of synths and guitars that should make even the staunchest early ’90s shoe-gazer perk up. Luckily, Numbers don’t just emulate. Dave Broekema’s jittery guitar lines and Indra Dunis’s thin, waif-like voice add a personal signature to the album and allow the band to distinguish themselves from their weighty influences.
Now You Are This isn’t without its faults — the lyrics are forgettable and the band does occasionally get lost in their own excitement — but, as a whole, it’s a striking and surprisingly coherent slab of noisy pop.
