Music Reviews

Swearing At Motorists

This Flag Signals Goodbye

Secretly Canadian

30 minutes of turbo-charged, overtly cool, pure class A rock n’ roll from the increasingly brilliant twosome Swearing At Motorists, seeing them reach heights and depths only hinted at on their semi-classic Number Seven Uptown, from a couple of years back. With their basic set-up of guitar and drums, it’s impossible to not compare them to The White Stripes, and, sure enough, there are other similarities as well, besides the minimal instrumentation. Their focus on songwriting and creating subtle and effective dynamics by easy means being the two most eye-catching ones. And they’re both bands that have a unique sound, so what’s the use of comparing them anyway? Well, there you go.

Swearing At Motorists rock with the best of them, having the scope of The Who and the contemporary everything-goes/everything-rocks approach of Queens of the Stone Age. Which is why you get everything from the hauntingly poignant title track to the give-a-fuck in-joke of “Anything You Want.” “The new rock,” if you will, have a tendency to give off an air of either light-hearted mischief or self-serving awareness. Swearing At Motorists, again like The White Stripes, not only have something to say, but they’re giving the finger to every possible rule and convention as they’re saying it. An album of unpretentious, real rock n’ roll. Imagine that.

Secretly Canadian Records: http://www.secretlycanadian.com


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