“Forever Love”
from the album Ideal Lives
2006
iTunes
Download an MP3 of “Forever Love” from the band’s website
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We live in the age of the single. Even the most desired indie darlings have at best one or two songs that stand out more than the rest of their album. Long past are the days of the complete album. Although it is easy to get caught up in the buzz of a band with that one hit, you have to look a little extra harder to find a band with the complete package. For some, that might take keeping track with what a particular label is doing. Another way is scope the websites of producers and engineers who have a track record of working with bands with potential. Word of mouth is okay if you have someone who does those previous two jobs for you. Or you can get lucky and happen to have something fall into your lap. The last two happened for me with Rahim’s latest, Ideal Lives.
Rahim is a trio that had gotten the opportunity to work with producer extraordinaire J Robbins. As a result of listening to this album, you get the feeling that the band and Robbins feed off each other by creating an eclectic album that flows from beginning to end, leaving a path of sweet harmonies mixed with some DC-influenced post-punk. Robbins’ production work gives the album a raw sound that seems to work as well live as it does through my headphones.
The album opener, “KlangKlangKlang,” has a little bit of everything going on. From some trumpet sounds, some really slick and sly, but subdued punk-derived drumming, and a brilliant, playful relationship between the bass and guitar, much like Robbins’ old band Jawbox. “Something from an Amputee” continues this trend, but with lyrics that are considerably catchy to the point where you will find yourself lip synching to the chorus. Another favorite on this album would have to be “Forever Love” with its subtle math-rock tribute to ’60s British Beatle-esque bands.
Throughout the album, Philip Sutton’s drumming is just amazing. Instead of playing to the vocals and the feel of the song, Sutton seems to have somehow managed to make the feel of the song come from the drums. Ryan McCoy’s bass and Michael Friedrich’s guitar together sound like an over-active 2-year-old, sometimes quickly stopping for the other to pick up speed, only to stop again, then all three members seem to pick up with each other musically and vocally, a trick that has gotten me hook, line, and sinker.
I revel in the fact that Ideal Lives is only the first full-length from Rahim. Even though the band has released an EP before this album, I feel this is a start to what is the potential to being the foundation to an interesting Rahim library. These guys deserve credit for not only keeping the sound that influenced them in the first place, but for also having the sense to expand on that one-dimensional train of thought and build on it to the point where the listener begins to wonder how the song will finish and the next will begin. That is not to say this album is full of trickery and random slight-of-hand tricks. Rahim just picks up where bands of the past have left off and where bands of the present can never seem to genuinely pick up. While I am sure J Robbins gave the band invaluable guidance, the chemistry between the members of Rahim is quite apparent from the beginning to the end of the album.