PRESS
Angels of Light & Akron/Family split album
cokemachineglow.com | Christopher Alexander
#21 top 50 albums of 2005
Top 50 albums of '05Dec 05
21. Angels of Light & Akron/Family
Akron/Family & Angels of Light
(Young God)
Open letter to every indie rock band everywhere: make more records like Akron/Family's half of this split. Make music that is this jubilant and celebratory, this wide open to the world. Make music that demands the kind of attention this record does, music with the irresistable foot stomps and full-throated howling found here. Break out Led Zeppelin IV if you need to, or Dinosaur Jr, or smoke more weed, or do whatever it is you have to do, but please: rediscover electricity, rediscover your lap, and make music this FUN again.
Quite frankly, in the face of all of this, all Michael Gira (as Angels of Light, backed by Akron/Family) has to do is hold the fort. He does, with a Dylan cover thrown in for good measure, and the results are pleasant, but make no mistake: this record is the Akron/Family's show. And WHAT a show: marvel at the mid-eastern guitar stomp of "Sparks!" feast your eyes on the extended work out of "Dylan Part II!" gaze as the late-Beatles period pastiche of "Awake" sets you up for the sucker punch of "Moment." "Moment" boasts the best arrangement of any song you've likely heard this year: ear splitting noise gives way to the kind of half time beat and singalong you'd hear at a football match, going back into the noise to come out the other side into a Zep guitar riff (complete with Bonzo drumming) before stopping, suddenly but unimpeachably logically, into Beatle-esque acoustic guitars and group singalongs. That's you doing the sommersaults all over your room, though.