Plushgun

Dancing in a Minefield

(Tommy Boy)

Record Review by Amber Henson

I have a tendency to over-analyze (emphasis on the anal).  And while this helps when writing reviews, it can bog my friends and coworkers down a bit.  I hold on details that are nonsensical (to me), and then pick them apart until the entire piece of work - be it a movie, a web series, or an album - just has no more meaning.  For instance, I was watching a web series lately where the heroine gets stabbed in the head.  Now, why stab someone in the head?  The muscles one uses raising their arm up like that aren’t nearly as strong as the chest-stabbing ones, and why wouldn’t one just stab someone in the chest, as their go-to stabby method?  The heroine lives, even - so clearly it’s not a sure thing. 

So in that pull-apart spirit, Plushgun confuses me equally.  Here is a band where an acoustic guitar singer-songwritter named Daniel Ingala wrote a song and said “why not add some synths?”  So how did they go from that to the other end of the spectrum, with such synth heavy songs, I feel very much like I’m playing Donkey Kong Country 2 (which is, btw, one of the greatest games in history).

I like Plushgun.  Sure, the lyrics are a little over dramatic, there are parallels to Ace of Base, and they’re trying a little too hard to get me to dance, but I’m not asking them for perfection just yet.  The electronica beats are an interesting combination with the heartfelt lyrics.  It’s a little like The Postal Service meets an upbeat aerobic instructor and a deep-thinking, stoned college student.  They remind me of another band that you shouldn’t judge solely by the lyrics: Persephone’s Bees (although they get more of a free pass since their singer is from Russia).

Even the slow songs work their way into specific beats, the kind that, if one were to dance to them (and I might, if my roommate weren’t home and I’d had a couple beers), it would be that dance where you put your arms out and you spin while jumping up and down.  We’ve all done it.  Or, at least, we’ve all see that in movies.

Pick the album up, check it out.  If it doesn’t touch your soul, it will at least go perfectly with your next party.  Make sure to have the camera out.