March 12, 1999

The Ideal Crash

Numerous is the band who do The Quiet-Loud-Quiet Thing, and [a]dEUS[/a] were always devotees of this [a]Slint[/a]-like genre....

8 / 10 Numerous is the band who do The Quiet-Loud-Quiet Thing, and dEUS were always devotees of this Slint-like genre. 'Suds And Soda' was scraping proof of the addictiveness of said simplistic sonic equation - they bodyswerved from FM crooning to Beefheart-style jazz shouting. Which brings us to 'The Ideal Crash'. And dEUS have changed.

It's still them. Tom Berman's Marlboro Man burr, the sweeping violin, the sense of warmth that comes from their love of American rawk... It's all there, but rather than intersperse it with the sound of pianos being tortured and demons squealing, you simply get more.

The melancholy is still there in 'One Advice, Space' or the REM-tinged 'Put The Freaks Up Front' but it's now way less obvious - you feel it rather than hear it as guitar squiggle explosions take up seconds rather than songs. Add on a homespun hint of alt-Americana for the Wilco-esque 'Instant Street' (banjos!) and dEUS have grown up.

They used to sound like REM-meets-Pixies and do The Quiet-Loud-Quiet Thing. Increasingly they sound like dEUS and do The dEUS Thing. Hopefully, we've seen the beginning of a trend...