Autolux - Future Perfect

The debut album from Autolux is an album that, for me, was long-awaited. Having released their Demonstration EP way back in 2001, I had to make due with the 5 officially released songs, 3 b-sides, and a pleathora of bootlegs. Not a bad amount of material to "make due" with, but I wondered why the full-length was taking them so long to create? Now that Future Perfect has been out for some time, I can understand why it took them so long. It's not that there are so many infinite layers of sound that it would take forever to sort them all out, or that each song is so long and epic that the simple act of recording it all would take forever. In fact, quite the opposite. Future Perfect consists of mostly 3-5 minute pop songs created in a fashion unlike most anything out there. The time consuming factor in creating it simply boils down to ensuring that every aspect of it fit together properly. The guitar sounds of "Here Comes Everybody," "Angry Candy," the bridge of "Sugarless," the perfectly reverbiating drum sound of "Great Days for the Passenger Element," or the subtle bass play on "Plantlife" could be not be achieved in a simple in-and-out recording session. Plus, the added waiting just sort of adds to the anticipation, doesn't it? Now having read several reviews of Future Perfect I see a lot of comparisons to My Bloody Valentine or Sonic Youth - neither of which Autolux sounds quite like. The comparison comes in that all these bands were innovative enough to create something very fresh that is completely worth listening to. Future Perfect is a disc of 11 pop-rock songs, but it was not meticulously crafted in such a way that any time was wasted. Everything from the seemingly non-sensical lyrics (some topics take some research), the other worldly guitar tones, the subtleties of the growing drums, the complimenting yet driving bass lines, and the somewhat detached vocal delivery were likely combed over and over until there was no further harmony between them that could be achieved. I could probably rant endlessly about the subtle sounds and songwriting throughout this album, but I'll leave it at this: Future Perfect is one of the most innovative and addictive albums that I've heard in the last ten years. The musical play between all three players creates some gorgeous results - particularly the vocal play between Carla Azar and Eugene Goreshter and the fascinatingly strange guitar sounds from Greg Edwards. If I could recommend this album more I would, but I think my level of fan-boy interest already exists at an unhealthy level. [www.autolux.net]