“Let Me Drive”
from the album About a Girl
2009
iTunes
Many bands have bucked the trend of rock music’s basic structure, forgoing the standard guitar, bass, and drums in favor of other combinations. The 2-man rock band, composed of a guitar player and a drummer, a sort of basic survival kit for the format, streamlines rock and roll to its most basic elements. Bands like The White Stripes and The Black Keys have a raw sound that can be described as simply riffs and beats. A working formula is achieved by subtracting band members as a way to reach a more visceral sound. This approach is more fruitful than the one taken by The Presidents of the United States of America, a band that subtracted the number of strings on their instruments as an avenue toward minimalism but arrived at something more akin to limitism than minimalism. Though they have twice as many members as the duo format, Quebec’s Winter Gloves take a decidedly subdued approach to their songs.
The Montreal quartet of Winter Gloves creates beautiful indie pop, sans bass player. Instead they add the presence of a Wurlitzer organ. The ten songs of the group’s first proper album, About a Girl, sound lighter than air, drifting along untethered by heavy bass notes.
The opening track, “Factories,” lays soft rock melodies over post-punk foundations, a theme that runs throughout the record and creates a sound comparable to the soft-focus Hollywood close-up. Songs on About a Girl are all soft lines and dreamy tones; they take the sharp, pointy blades of post-punk and dull them to harmless tips.
“Let Me Drive,“ a track that would sound equally at home in a club or on a car stereo, refutes the Washington Post claims that there are no more pop songs written about cars. When the chorus slows down and the band lets up on the accelerator, the intent seems solely for the purpose of speeding up again once the verse comes back in. Even while listening to it when not behind the wheel, the song has the feel of being in traffic.
Elsewhere on the album, songs like “Hillside” and “About a Girl” sound cute, but not quite twee, as Winter Gloves enter Grandaddy territory of gentle and diffused indie rock. On “I Can’t Tell You” and “Party People,” the band reaches for Coldplay’s shallow, sonic depth, but instead grasp something more. They follow through on an idea to completion, willing to risk the chance of something new not working out as well as something they’ve done before.
Although songs on About a Girl sound like they stop rather than end, it is a thoroughly enjoyable listen and a solid debut that grows better with each listen. Winter Gloves play to their strengths, creating catchy, dreamy indie pop. They are much stronger writing upbeat songs rather than ballads. The album does include a couple weak moments, but ultimately, the band is at it’s best when they combine the two, like on the album closer, “Pianos 4 Hands.”