Where Is It Going: A Review of Weekend's "Jinx"

Weekend's debut (not to be confused with the Weeknd) album, Sports, came at a time when noise-rock wasn't noise-rock. Noise-rock was more like "pop songs buried in tape hiss and artificial distortion", thanks to the popularity of bands like Wavves and Times New Viking at the time. But Sports was a respite, with fuzzed out, sickly sounding guitars and a pounding rhythm section, in the vein of classic noise-rock albums, such as My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, The Jesus and Mary Chain's Psychocandy and even The Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat (which many would cite as the birth of noise rock).

But all of this was back in 2010, and now it's 2013. On Weekend's sophomore record, Jinx, the band sets their focuses more on post-punk and new wave. This decision can make it harder for bands to stand out of the pack of groups aiming for this similar sound. In the past two years we've had bands like Craft Spells, Wild Nothing, DIIV, Frankie Rose, Dum Dum Girls, Merchandise and even this year, Beach Fossils released the excellent Clash the Truth which focused more on post-punk than indie pop.

So needless to say, Weekend were going to have to pull something amazing to sound as refreshing as they did back in 2010, with the release of Sports. And luckily, Jinx is able to achieve that.

Weekend has always been a dark band. The snatches of lyrics that you could actually make out from the distortion on Sports were self lacerating and creepy ("something deep inside of me turned off", "I awoke from a coma summer"). With the listener able to understand the lyrics on Jinx, the band's darkness has grown (or consumed them even more). This darkness isn't forced though, after hearing about front man and bassist Shaun Durkan discuss recent events in his life. The passing of a loved one, a mental breakdown and six months spent in therapy has all built up to the cathartic music that is found on Jinx.

The band as a whole, has also found a change of scenery, by moving from San Francisco to Brooklyn. Truth be told, their sound didn't fit in with the sunny pop of Girls and psychedelia of Thee Oh Sees and Ty Segall.

Similar to what many Brooklyn (and lo-fi bands in general) have been doing on their sophomore records, has been to strip away the noise. This change is apparent on the album's first track and single, "Mirror". It begins with disembodied vocals and piercing flickers of static before the bass kicks in, much more audible than it was on Sports. The guitars sound like something that The Cure would appreciate. On "Mirror", Durkan seems to be painting a picture of a Jekyll and Hyde like story with lyrics like "he only comes in the night, someone just like me".

With the stripping of the noise, the band's musical palette has expanded as well. Songs like "Sirens" and "Rosaries" sound like Radio Dept. b-sides. The way the bass and guitars ring out on "Celebration, FL" sounds like the funky swing that Depeche Mode sometimes carry with them.

The one downfall of the album, is that it can feel very front loaded at times. The highlights like "July" (a chronicle of love in the month) and "Oubliette" (which contains some of the darkest lyrics, "dogs gave up rib thin gaunt") come in the first 15 minutes of the 45 minute long album. But after multiple listens, every track reveals it's necessity to be included in this album. "Rosaries" and "Sirens" may seem like meandering interludes, but work in the context of the rest of the album. The closer, "Just Drive" sounds unremarkable by itself, but by being the last thing we hear on Jinx, it seems fitting.

So, Jinx is much more subtle than Sports but it slowly reveals it's brilliance to the listener after repeated listens, something that The National employed on this year's excellent Trouble Will Find Me. On Sports, Weekend were trying to prove something. Now that they've done that, they have the opportunity to become more subtle and expand their musical palette. Some may be upset that the ear killing noise is gone, but Jinx adds a whole new layer to Weekend.

Weekend - Jinx
8/10
Recommended Tracks: "Mirror", "July", "Oubliette", "Scream Queen", "Just Drive"