“Idiocy”
from the album Loose in the Air
2005
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The Double combine unsettling electronic noise with simple, enjoyable vocal hooks to create a rickety, rattletrap pop collage that’s too undeniably ear-catching to ignore.
Lead vocalist David Greenhill’s nervous yet unaffected stylings stumble to the forefront of opener “Up All Night,” backed by robust guitar and off-kilter percussion. Donald Beaman’s quirky, squawking guitar gives this tenuously bound junkyard hodgepodge an organic feeling of depth that sits richly above the din of organ and bass.
“Idiocy” sets out similarly, with a brief, acrid burst guitar feedback that coalesces into an experiment-in-circuits pop song. The constant rolling floor-tom, kick drum and snare provide a strong undercurrent, and Beaman’s quirky guitar spills in haphazard bursts of noisy feedback. The effect is intriguing; it’s like the sound of a lunchbox full of computer chips under a piledriver. The Double pulls off similar juxtapositions throughout Loose in the Air — the interplay of playful and rhythmic noise is what really gives this record character. For example, “On Our Way” it sounds as if someone is kicking a guitar amp in cadence with each syllable of the refrain. “In the Fog” would be as straight-up a piano ballad as you could imagine, were it not for the reverb, which swells and swells until the vocals float away in a lilting haze of guitar feedback.
They Might Be Giants-style organ and square-wave bass in “Icy” creep surreptitiously into your brain, while jangly tambourine and drums create an iridescent, rhythmic network through which David Greenhill’s skittish vocals peek. Traces of pop settle in the background, as noisy, exciting experimentation gives the songs their depth. “Ripe Fruit,” with its slower-than-slow pop mantra and endlessly repeated incoherent phrase, has a vocal melody as fluid and sweet as its title suggests.
On the downside, Greenhill’s vocals are often mixed a little too low, so understanding the lyrics can be a real mental workout. However, if you’re growing tired of hearing the usual pop tricks, but crave uptempo beats and hooks, Loose in the Air is the new fix you’ve been craving.