by Sara Mae (@veryverynoisy)
Brooklyn band Climax Landers is back after six years with Zenith No Effects. The beloved group surveys each of their sensibilities to create an irreverent but invigorating record, a hot air balloon of an album, for its memorable cast of characters, big picture lyrics, windy gusts of riffs to get swept up in, and overall zaniness.
We open with Will Moloney talking through images of a blue orange sky and a critique of plutocracy, on “CL: Into the Quantum Static.” There is an almost doo-wop-y introduction to the second song. “My Loving Sister,” that feels tongue in cheek when followed up by gritty throaty vocals and a whining guitar solo. “Jail Break” takes a similar 50s refrain, a layering of voices repeating, “jailbreak” and “surrender my youthful opinion,” almost in a cannon, but more deliciously inexact. The strings come in prickly and sweet on “Clear/Bright,” mixed with an undeniably catchy up and down riff, and some really fun vocal deliveries from Moloney as he sings, “She fell off like a petal/ / made rings in the pond / never wanted to settle/ spray paint at the prom.”
The album’s characteristic frenetic lyrical and melodic movements open up in “Ad Hominem” for the last minute of pealing and guitar playing, a really great movement of attention in the arc of the record. The second half of the album really gets into a groove: “The Judge” is an immediate hit, a climbing riff, a contagious drum beat, a smooth and chugging quiet in “Heaven Sent,” highlighting Moloney’s lyrical style in “Valkyrie Profile” saying over and over “don’t treat me in any particular way,” only for the song to break into a faster pace, faster delivery and harmonies. Climax Landers comes out of the alchemy of so many greats, Will Moloney of Old Table, Ani Ivry-Block of Palberta, Paco Cathcart of The Cradle, and Charlie Dore-Young of Sweet Baby Jesus and The Gradients. By the band’s own descriptions, they think of Climax Landers as psychedelic Guthrie folk or relatable freak rock. It has the same gritty catchiness of Shannon & the Clams with a more intimate sound, or Talking Kind for the sense of humor and lyricism.
In the final song we return to the same melody and foundation of the first song, and there’s a sort of monologue, Moloney saying: “Its Climax Landers! somebody shouted, the fractured world stood still for one moment, and packed together lives, programs, sacrosanct, forests and mountains and roads and airways and slipstreams stood still for a moment…” It is clearly a project of deep friendship and warmth, but also of resistance and vision towards something greater. There’s a grandiosity to the songs that is not entirely self-serious but is also earnest, and that is what feels good about these songs. In the liner notes, it says, “Despite the techno-plutocracy suffocating truth and beauty, our intrepid group fulfills communal bonds and commitments–inspiring newcomers and old friends to fight for the days ahead.” Moloney’s soprano saxophone at the close of the album is enough to carry you into another work day, another commute, another day, and feel less of a slog, and think instead of the friends you had dinner with last night, and sat on the stoop talking about the world with.