.
The Legends - Over and Over

by Eric Loranger

.
The Legends clearly worship the ground Joy Division walked on. Over and Over sounds like an artifact of the Manchester revolution not only in sound, but also in sound quality. The music's often dense and lo-fi to the point of headaches, and though that's been the gimmick lately in bands like Wavves, No Age, and Times New Viking (Hey! Let's make an album that sounds like s***!), The Legends actually are a one-man-band � which makes it a bit more forgivable. Johan Angergard wrote, played, recorded, and "produced" (yeah right) all twelve of these tracks himself, with a couple of vocal, drum and keyboard cameos along the way.

Where the lo-fi groups of late have sometimes been accused of obscuring their music sonically in order to hide the fact that the songwriting really isn't there, Angergard knows his way around a hook. "Monday to Saturday" would have fit squarely onto the Juno soundtrack � which I actually mean to be a compliment � with its sunshiney hand claps and singalong melody. Even the most abrasive songs on the album, such as the brutal "Seconds Away" and the title track, are catchy as all hell in a very, very Jesus and Mary Chain kind of way.

My biggest problem with the record is the auto-tuned vocals. You've got this really stripped down, sincere music � a one-man-band that sounds like a one-man-band � but with these robotic, phony vocals that don't sit right on top of the music. "Heartbeats" is particularly T-Pained out, and the vocals really do ruin the whole track. Angergard is certainly not the only indie musician to incorporate this technique into his music � Wolftron for example polluted their record in much the same way � but I swear I'm more disappointed with this one, because had the vocalist gone for an honest, Stephen Malkmus kind of frontman style, this would have been a definite buy-it-now record. As it is, it's really a matter of whether or not you can stomach the vocals. Do you dig Cher?

However I'm going to give The Legends the benefit of the doubt because Angergard really does come through with the songwriting and gives a sonically arresting performance more than a few times. I think that this record will please Joy Division fans who were angered by Interpol's misrepresentation of that style of music, and it'll please Interpol fans who might want to hear a more aggressive, confrontational version of that endlessly nonconfrontational group.

Check 'em Out:
www.myspace.com/heknowsthesun

You Might Like:
Joy Division, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Interpol


Info and Links

The Legends - Over and Over
Rating:

Preview and Purchase This CD Online

Visit the official homepage

More articles for this artist

.




advertisement