Categories : Folk + Roots, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop, Top Rated.
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Rating: 4 / 5 Reviewer: Garth Paulson |
Sometimes Water Kills People, the debut album by Valleys might be the best example of an album name to album content marriage of 2009. After all, no one ever suspects water. It’s just always there and then wham; you get too drunk, pass out in an alley and drown in a two-inch puddle. Water, man. It’ll fuck you up.
Valleys pull off a similar feat of stealthy devastation. Sometimes Water Kills People seemingly just drifts by, awash in folksy guitar picking, droning waves of atmosphere and sing-song, boy-girl vocals. Nothing really stands out. And then wham, you pick out the singers promising each other the keep their clothes on ‘Tan Lines,’ or the saddest compliment ever on ‘Killer Legs,’ or being asked whether you remember “diet cokes in kitchens and a phone cord wrapped around your neck” on ‘Heavy Dreamer’ and suddenly that music that faded so easily into the background just floors you.
Once this happens, you’re hooked. Valleys are no longer sleepy ambience and homely melodies, but a raw, bleeding wound that would scab over if you could stop poking it with your grimy finger. Every electronic gurgle starts to ask you uncomfortable questions about what you’re doing with your life and every resigned lyric brings back some memory where you made everything wrong. The album doesn’t make you feel good, but maybe it makes you feel good feeling bad for a bit.
Sometimes water does kill people. And sometimes a band hides in the corner and you hardly even notice them until they ram a knife through your ribs. And it hurts, but you can’t help but notice that it feels a little like a hug; that you’re pleasantly warm.
Then again, water doesn’t usually kill people and maybe Valleys are just a kind of dull, folkier take on Low and all of the above is pensive nonsense. Valleys, man, results may vary.
