by Ross Holder (@RossHolder8)
It has been a tumultuous four years for Flasher but they are finally back with their sophomore album, Love is Yours, released on Domino. Like many of us, Flasher have not gone through the last few years unscathed. This is Flasher’s first album as a duo after founding member and bassist, Daniel Saperstein decided to leave the DC outfit. As expected when a founding member leaves, Flasher have evolved into something excitingly different.
Love is Yours’ is a much less angular sound than we have come to expect from Flasher. Priding themselves on collaborative songwriting, losing a member was always going to affect the musical direction but what’s resulted from that tectonic shift is some infectiously catchy music with signature vocal unison and harmonies. If previous Flasher releases were more point and shoot, Love is Yours is a lot more multi-textured and thoughtful. The album was recorded in Washington D.C. with a long-time friend of the band, Owen Wuerker, at his home studio. Wuerker helped flesh out the album by adding some instrumentation and helped reimagine the band’s sound.
Relationships are a recurring topic in this new release and the title single discusses the turbulent course of a long-term relationship, the joyful highs and many lows. It is an indie-pop jam that was released with an accompanying music video that was directed by Camille Smura where guitarist Taylor Mulitz humorously attempts to pay his respects to Nicholas Cage’s character in the blockbuster movie, ‘National Treasure’. The band philosophically explained that their music video “is a homage to National Treasure, because much like a treasure room hidden beneath Trinity Church, love that endures is the greatest adventure history has ever revealed.”
Emma Baker’s vocals are front and center in “Little Things” and it is quite an intimate melancholic song with a ‘90s-style guitar riff running throughout. Baker’s reverberated vocals at the end of the song is intensified by the dramatic synths which convey the feeling of disillusion and being lost. In keeping with a similar narrative, “I’m Better” is about leaving behind a bad relationship that is tiresome, toxic, and the journey to self-assurance. It is a more familiar, driven sound and there is a rawness that Flasher of old conveyed so well.
The duo are now bi-coastal after Mulitz moved from his home on the East Coast to Los Angeles. The breezy, warm Californian air is personified, sonically by lead single “Sideways,” perhaps the biggest deviation from the bands’ previous post-punk energy. It is bright and lighthearted and is a great soundtrack for a summer’s night driving. “Dial Up” is a little more downbeat and has interesting instrumentation which is interwoven between the duo’s vocals. The song’s main heartbeat is a percussive, reverberated sound that almost resembles a bubble bursting. Flasher have a knack of making their songs interesting and “Dial Up” is a fantastic example of the creative ways a song can be written.
Losing an integral piece can shake up the foundations of a band, quite often for the worse.Unlike a less contemplative outfit, Flasher have managed to reinvent themselves into something interesting, fresh and exciting whilst keeping their original spirit intact. Love is Yours is a great example of what some perseverance and self-reflection can do for a band and Flasher have released a very compelling album that will be many people’s summer favorite.