We Only Said -We Only Said

Posted on February 24, 2010 by Carys Sanders

French band We only Said peddle what they describe on their myspace page as the crossroads of “post-rock” and “North American indie pop”.  This self titled album does have shades of rock intensity about it in its rawly rendered guitar sounds, but its most notable quality is its quiet, subtle and sombre nature.  The band cleverly manage to create a dreamy aura around their songs without being overtly obvious, a sound crafted from understated melodies and guitar and piano hooks.  The album succeeds most in the way it does this so subtly.  There is something admirable about the simple nature from which it is constructed, proving you don’t need lavish production and a library of effects at your disposal to create something beautiful, or that things need to make an immediate impact to captivate the listeners interest.

Highlights on the album include the hypnotic and rythmic drumbeats and guitar of Get Out Freakie, the persistent looping piano hook and almost imperceptible guitar distortion of Go Rotten, and Your Drab Eyes which features the bands looping piano sounds before cuminating in an echoing bass-heavy outro. The mournful Eighty-Sixed features more slow and melancholic piano before breaking into a standard rock guitar sound, which is perhaps an example of where the bands post-rock influences are most obvious.

There are times however when the album can feel as though it is trudging along, and there is a fine line between a slower take on things and just being a little bit boring.  For example, Cheerful Girl has a long pondering intro which starts out delicately promising, but after nearly two minutes of false starts and stilted build-ups, when the vocal finally kicks in the song has drifted into an unremarkable territory.

We Only Said does demand a bit of patience on the listeners part, and for those whos attention span is a bit on the short side some persistence is required for it to really grow and its charm to be fully realised. However, in a 2010 of polished electronicly produced pop and gaudy music videos, it is good to be reminded that not all music has to clout you around the head and dance you into a breathless daze before you have had time to comprehend what the heck is going on.  Fun as that can be, sometimes it is nice to have music that drifts around on the periphery of your consciousness, and allows itself space to seep into your mind and leave you feeling all warm, dreamy, and as though you are pondering on profound or important matters (even though you probably aren’t).  This is where We Only Said ultimately succeed with this subdued but shimmering debut album.

Drop-D Rating: 7/10

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Filed under: featured, records

Tags: Florian Marzano, indie, pop, post rock, we only said