I’ve referred to music as bipolar before, right? Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’ve done that on Swole Ear. You know, when a band can’t seem to decide what music it wants to create, and goes through a couple different sounds throughout the same record? That’s a bipolar band. I’m writing all of this because I am a little confused about this band. They’re definitely not bipolar. That’s for sure. I don’t think that tripolar works for them either. Is infinitepolar a word? Well it is now, because I’m using it to describe Les Savy Fav, or their record, Let’s Stay Friends, at least.
Whoa, both the initials of the band and record are L.S.F. I just realized that. I bet they did that on purpose. Clever.
Anyway, Les Savy Fav dips its toes in what appears to be every rock subgenre in existence. There’s standard indie rock in Pots & Pans, the opener, but they branch out much more than that. Right after Pots, they do what I was least expecting—launch into a shouty, almost hardcore emo track. The Equestrian came out of nowhere, but that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it.
This trend of indecision continues throughout Let’s Stay Friends, as the band touches on everything from mathish rock to twee pop. What’s amazing, though, is that they manage to hold on to their identity throughout, even though they can’t stick with any particular style of rock. For some reason, it’s always clear that Les Savy Fav is behind the song.
Even though the frequent musical switches threw me off, I did find myself enjoying this record. While it may appear that the band can’t form an identity or unique sound through the extreme variations in their music, I found the opposite to be true. Their identity is their indecision; their sound is not having a sound. Honestly, it breaks up the monotony that indie rock can be.
Swole Ear 
Leave a Reply