Right on the heels of the insanely good Eugene Otto Quell EP, mystery man (men?) Eugene Quell is back with a just announced follow-up, appropriately titled—this is indie-rock after all—A Great Uselessness. And our first taste, the also appropriately titled single “That One Song” is more or less a balls-out departure in pace, tone, and sound itself. Unlike the sloppy virtuosity of “Weird Purr” or the heartsick balladry of “Make a House a Home”, this thing is a burner, a churner, and sounds like it could have been on Turn on the Bright Lights if Interpol had ditched the suits—and, as that motherfucker Time has shown us, they probably should have—for shitty thrift digs.
The track shows the Brighton-based Brit(s) meshing into a proper four-piece: the guitars have gotten louder, the drums faster, the hooks catchier, and there's more cohesion to the whole affair. They sound more like a band and less like the teary-eyed, sleep-deprived, DIY-ed bedroom project of one preternaturally gifted “slacker.” But don’t let the new noise fool you: the songwriting is still there in spades. Strip these Exploding in Sound guys of their heavy feedback laden clothes (think Two Inch Astronaut’s Sam Rosenberg moonlighting as Mattress Financial) and you’ll find a bunch of Elliott Smiths hiding beneath.
Stream “That One Song” below. A Great Uselessness is out July 7 on Sonic Anhedonic Recording Company.
