Gotta admit—I’ve been turned off by Astronomers in concert, mostly because the band is almost too good for its own good. All that super-clean shredding can make you feel like you’re watching a bunch of robots, designed to provide danceable alternative music for fans of Muse, The Strokes and Minus the Bear. But the band’s great new album, Size Matters (listen now) files down the band’s glossiest edges, and pulls into view the group’s essential charm, lost unto me until now: Astronomers is an endearingly nerdy band.
Take, as an extreme example, one of the album’s best cuts, “Tatterdemalion.” It isn’t some gawdy Muse-indebted fist-pumper about an imaginary world-historical conflict; it’s titled for a supervillain in the Marvel comics universe. The tune is written in 5/4 time, which can lend the impression (especially in concert) that a rock band is trying too hard, sometimes at the expense of emotional depth. But a layer of lush harmonies bury the song’s jagged rhythm, culminating in a well-arranged, gorgeous head-bobber. And like a tatterdemalion, the song shows in its tatters that it’s human after all.
So what I thought was a glossy, alienating ambition is in fact sharp attention to detail that’s exhilirating to hear on Size Matters. It also makes the group easier to in the local scene: the group’s intergalactic themes puts them in Corsair’s camp, and their endearing nerdiness puts them up against the Hilarious Posters. All this makes me look forward to checking out Astronomers with a fresh perspective at the band’s release show on May 27 at the Southern. And as luck may have it, the Posters have also just finished a disc to be released at the very same show.
Look for a proper review of Size Matters in next week’s C-VILLE.
What do you think of Astronomers new album?