review: Perfect Future S/T

Perfect Future
S/T
Count Your Lucky Stars, 2009

Perfect Future: "In Hopes"


I don't know how old Perfect Future is, but I only have one question--have you ever heard Twothirtyeight? The same spare math-rock, with mesmerizing percussion and even the vocalist sounds a little like Chris Staples. A perfect match made. Comparing a band to Twothirtyeight is one of the highest compliments I can give, actually--I respect them too much to pull their name before swine, meaning then that Perfect Future is not swine, but a great incarnation/reminder/meditation on Sunny Day Real Estate, Two Thirty Eight, et al. Perfect Future is not afraid of bareness. They don't make sound, just to have sound, instead there is meaning and power in the absences, and the intensity is notched higher when the volume does rise. They manipulate the volume, like it is an instrument. Catch the strolling melody of "Make Fun," the poignant and pointed statement, that yes, we will make fun even though the factories suffocate us all, with a chorus out of nowhere, left field perhaps, if left field has a smooth glide over thorny clover patches. Don't worry, something is saved with a song like "Mother Earth," there are quick yells and definitiveness in those yells: "I am too ashamed to be your son," yes, yes, that uneven but wide open, honest pace, awesome, awesome.



Track 6 can probably do without K-Pax (I think), but what results in the rest of "If We Dance..." is this rawness barely seen at this stage in the game, again that math rock not dependent on distortion but perfect melody.

I've listend to this album repeatedly, multiple times over, and tracks 9-13, are more determined, more focused, more right on. In something like "Roses & Roses & Roses" there doesn't seem to be as much variation, the lead stays lead, the rhythm stays rhythm. The surprises are more pleasant rather than jarring. "In Hopes" almost has a beat to it, a real noticeable groove, like a slow disambiguated earthquake underneath a songwriter's night at the local coffee shop. I want them to find some Polvo just to see what they do.

Except some people will find Perfect Future too unsettling, like a neighbor with a nervous tic or a distant relative with a weird goiter that you have to be nice to anyway. All I mean is that sometimes people don't want to be unsettled, don't want any part of the unheimlich, dont' want to be disturbed, with what's unexpected, so much of that screamo/hardcore/Hot Topic punk hits the screams in all the right places, and Perfect Future instead turns those moments into silent concentration, like trying to move an Etch-a-Sketch with mind power.

Don't worry, I'm just as fascinated by Perfect Future as you are. I'm still trying to figure them out. I hope it takes all the time in the world.

***Let's just take this time to note that Count Your Lucky Stars has released a whole bunch of awesome albums this year. Castevet, Joie De Vivre, Perfect Future, Empire! Empire!, some band called Football, Etc. that I haven't heard yet but keep hearing about...CYLS is on quite a run.