The Willowz exploded out of their home scene of Anaheim, California a couple
of years ago, mostly on the strength of two songs included on Michel
Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack, one of them
notably accompanying footage of Kirstin Dunst dancing on a bed in her
underwear. Their first full-length, Willowz Are Coming, was a jolt of
pure teenage rock 'n' roll energy from a band whose members still weren't
old enough to buy a drink. There, punk rock anthems like "Equation #6"
distilled the garage formula to essentials, yet the album also had enough
outlier tracks to suggest that The Willowz weren't planning on staying a
garage band very long.
Now with their follow-up, this still-young band is
pushing the envelope even further, incorporating samples, harmonies, horns
and a broader palette of sounds without sacrificing the intensity that makes
them great.
With 20 cuts, Talkincircles falls prey somewhat to the beginner's
"Hey, we can still fit two more tracks on here" syndrome, yet it compensates
by pushing the strongest material to the front. "Ulcer Soul" emerges out
of a squall of feedback, furious drums cutting through a pulsating roar of
distorted guitars, all density and compounded sensation. There's a break
about a minute in, where all you hear is frontman Richie James Follin
moaning "Oh... baby... break me down," against the platonic ideal of a rock
beat. It's like coming up for a gulp of air in a roiling ocean, and the
wave of noise, when it comes, nearly blots out the sky. Sweeter, bluesier,
slower "Unveil" rides a lazy beat, as Follin drawls "Those modern
girls... don't do it for me" over the clank of tambourine, and Jessica
Reynoza picks out a walking bass line.
"Unveil" leads into the album's hands-down highlight, the crushing, driving,
hundred-percent-on "Cons & Tricks." The Willowz, subject of a couple of abortive
bidding wars and exposed at a tender age to the worst of the industry, know
a thing or two about dishonesty, and they've used their experience to fuel
the fire. A stinging guitar line kicks the song off, with Follin pounding
out lyrics like "It seems like everything I do is wrong/ I feel so stupid
just to sing this song" at a rapid-fire pace. There's a pop element to The
Willowz whenever Reynoza sings, and here her murmured "ah-ahs" are a melodic
counterpart to the song's punk energy. The whole effort comes across as not so
much cynicism as disappointed innocence, the kind of wronged feeling
you can only have as a teenager. But it also works as pure rock 'n' roll as
Follin sings, "Cons & tricks they get me through/ I'm full of cheats/ I'll
cheat you, too/ Manipulation gets me through/ The point being that you never
knew/ That you never knew/ That you never knew."
Talkincircles is
studded with found sounds, which mostly don't add much; however, the
exception comes in this song. There's a phone-offhook sound mid-track
that's perfectly aligned with the rhythm, almost like a second drummer, and
very cool.
The first half of Talkincircles is better than the second half,
though a few late album tracks break out — "Heartstrings," with its epic
slow guitar intro and sweetly harmonized vocals, "Equation #2," for its giant
Supertramp-ish chorus, and singsong-frantic "Categories." The disc closes
with someone playing a classical piece — Haydn perhaps — on organ,
and
Reynoza remarking, "We can die now." Not yet please. By all indications,
The Willowz are just getting started.
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