A not so humble abode...

OK, kids, time for another round of What I´m Obsessed With (to be renamed What I´m Currently Obsessed With).

What I´m Currently Obsessed With: Pacifica by the Presets

Why: 

1. It´s not Apocolypso
2. It´s not Apocolypso
3. It´s not Apocolypso

I think you get the idea.

Don´t get me wrong.  As anyone can see from my last.fm stats, I really enjoyed that album, from the hedonistic shindig with a message that was My People, to the subversive dive down that was Anywhere, to the frantic kiss-off to former Aussie PM John Howard that was Eucalyptus.  I danced to ALL of it.  Even when I occasionally winced at the lyrical content, I danced.

The one thing that that particular record severly lacked was dynamics.  Sure, one could point to a couple of tracks to prove me wrong.  But they still had a high end beat, of some sort.  And they both came near the end of the album.  Whatever.

It’s the sort of thing that’s sussed out on their new album Pacifica, a record that hues closer in spirit to their 2005 debut, Beams.  That album, for me, had mabye four or five realized tracks, and the rest were well recorded piss takes.  But they added color and variance.  The new record takes the variance to the next level and brings in 10 songs, with no filler.

The fan reviews I’ve read on this record have been mixed, but I personally am enthralled with it, because, frankly, I like watching my rockstars grow up, change, and start recognizing other topics that they can sing about, other than just sex.   Putting out another Apocolypso would be giving in to an arrested adolescenthood.  I’d have stopped listening to them if that happened.  

Instead, we are treated to topics such as fatherhood (the sublime, seemingly Blue Nile influenced “It´s Cool”, where lead singer Julian Hamilton belts out an aching falsetto), an alternative history of Sydney, Australia, the Preset´s stomping grounds (the haunting, sinister, almost literary A.O.), media-induced paranoia (Youth In Trouble, which others have compared to Underworld, but to me sounds like sped-up Nitzer Ebb with a melody), shuddering at the past while staring into the future (the oddly beautiful, electronic folk ballad Ghosts).  They even tack on a power ballad at the end “Fail Epic”, which would have failed completely save for the lyrical content “You´ve got the power, the power to lose it all”.  

But what really gives the record that special kick for me are the pop songs.  They may have gone ultra commerical, M83 style, but they do it with class.  The triumvirate that are Promises, Push and Fall make for some delightful ear candy.  Even at their most generic, the Presets tend to put in a little twist (“and if I fall, all the way to Hell…”), though Push comes off as a satire of the very pop scene the Presets are attempting to dominate.  Which is hilarious and wonderful.

The only two songs that seem to fail for me are the ones that appear to have been written for the Apocolypso fans, Surrender and Fast Seconds.  Surrender is growing on me (as is Youth In Trouble, which I didn´t like when I first heard it), but, overall, I tend not to listen to those as much.  I skip from A.O. to Fail Epic.

Overall, the mood on this album is a scared but brave face for the future, which is currently my life, right now, so I´m feeling pretty much everything this record has to say about it.  I´m finding that those who did not like this record were wishing for another Apocolyso, with lots of `”drops”.  The Presets, on the other hand, appear to wish to transcend their genre and move on to more mature pastures.

And I, of course, am happy to move right along with them.