by Niccolo Dante Porcello (@chromechompsky)
Excellent Boston rockers Halfsour are releasing Land of Discarded Ideas, an album that was previously released exclusively as a tour tape. This re-release, via Disposable America, is accompanied by an incredible album-length video (albeit, it’s an 11 minute album) in high bricolage style. The video’s composed randomness fits well with the hard jangle of Halfsour, jarring image changes mirror furious chord progressions; Ariana Ratner’s video does an excellent job of tying the visual and sonic up into a complete package. Land of Discarded Ideas packs 11 songs into 11 minutes, a time honored and almost always exciting move. Songs like “grilled trash,” “forgotten habits,” and “perpetrator of fraud” excel by combining a little bit of everything, but doing it firmly in the Halfsour voice. There are rollicking drum lines, extremely catchy riffs, and the kind of sustainably great lyricism that is de rigueur for Halfsour at this point.
Ratner’s video is the perfect companion for this lyricism; indeed the wry musings of Halfsour’s members sits analogously with the found footage cum nostalgia-collage of Ratner’s video. Candles burn, flowers fly, puppets twirl, skeletons dance, hands are toothbrushed, someone makes hair tea, old videos instruct, and creepy chorus kids mouth silently along. This, along with a significant amount of other content, fills up an irresistible video, its impossible to look (or listen) away. Halfsour are becoming reliably great; their previous effort charm school, was nearly perfect, and Land of Discarded Ideas is a distinguished follow up.