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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Texan Monster Mash, 3 Jul 2008
White Denim's debut album `Workout Holiday' has been received rapturously by the critics and it is easy to see why. The record is an exhilarating mix-up of styles; raw garagey-bluesy indie rock augmented with unusual sound effects and off-kilter changes of pace and direction. There is lots of fun to be had trying to pin down the band's musical influences; White Stripes, Pavement and even Butthole Surfers came to mind for me.
But is it any good? The answer is yes indeed. The opening track `Let's Talk About It' is superb, driven by an instantly catchy raw guitar riff. `Shakespeare Shake' has a tremendous grinding bass-line around which guitars riff and jangle in an almost 60s sound. `Sitting' starts with a skewed bluesy-piano intro then heads off into catchy indie-rock territory with great echoey backing vocals. `I Can Tell' is a great, raw bluesy stomp with a psychedelic mid-section and does it all in less than two minutes.
If you love music with a bit of daring and experimentation this is the record for you. `Mess Your Hair Up' is a case in point; it starts straightforwardly enough as tracks before it but after a couple of minutes weird, almost electronic effects come in before the song changes direction completely, ending with a burst of guitar distortion worthy of fellow Texans Butthole Surfers.
`Workout Holiday' has a lo-fi, DIY aesthetic to it but I believe it to be a very carefully crafted record; all the mish-mash of styles work so well and the quality is strong throughout. Time will tell whether it is a true classic but if your interest has been piqued by its rave reviews then dive in, you won't be disappointed.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I don't write reviews everyday..., 3 Aug 2008
...but White Denim are worth the effort.
If you like the MC5, Can, Television, Devo, Love, Captain Beefheart, or anyone even slightly inluenced by any of the above, you owe it to yourself to buy this album. Even if you don't, you should probably still buy it anyway, because it's truly an extraordinary record, and you can never have too many of them in your collection, right?
Buy it. Buy it right now. Quick, before it's too late...
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11 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
One person,s holiday is anothers purgatory , 17 Aug 2008
"When you gonna learn? " trilled Stevie Wonder lite funkster Jamaraqoui once and it's a question I've asked numerous times throughout my forty odd years on this over heating dung ball we call earth . Now I apologise for bringing the irritating t**t in the hat into which no right thinking person should do , but that question is pertinent as I never do learn. There I was determined not to be tempted by the latest indie darlings but the reviews for Workout Holiday seduced like some raven haired floozy in a short skirt and a cleavage as deep as the grand Canyon so before you scream buy now I bought now and well , I regret that because rather like some raven haired temptress this is all surface and hides a multitude of sins.
The album starts off well enough with the frenzied riffing of "Let's Talk About It" which has been used for some Channel Four advert for their risible youth output. This is a great song . I also like the echoing spectral backing vocals on "Sitting " and "I Can Tell" is an agreeable chunky blues tinged rocker with added sitar ! Elsewhere though it's all a bit of a mess. Where other reviewers hear accomplished off kilter time changes, studied key shifts and air of sly and deliberate experimentation I just hear a great trebly mess.
Maybe they are all right and it's me that's wrong about this band , and admittedly the raft of good reviews would support that , but stuff like "Mess Your Hair Up" ( mess the song up more like) , "All You Really Have To Do" and the jerky unmistakable "Look That Way At It" just leaves me colder a Koala in a fridge.
I can hear elements of Pavement ( a band who also leave me cold a great deal of the time) and The White Stripes and there is something of the DIY post punk aesthetic about White Denim but there is no excuse for lazy shambolic tripe like "Dark Sided Computer Mouth "or "Don't Look That Way At It"( I will because it's s**t) .The Butthole Surfers comparison is as baffling as some of this albums chord changes . They are a bilious mixture of technical genius and profane inspiration that astonishingly subverts into something profound .White Denim sound like they play on a wish and a plectrum .
Like I say though maybe I am the one missing the point of this band. Maybe they are a bunch of delinquent but savvy polymaths and I am just blind , or should that be deaf to their intrinsic scuzzy brilliance .I just think it's fair to point out that Workout Holiday will not be for everyone. After all one person's Benidorm fun & sun marathon is another's day glow hell hole .
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