ATTACK IN BLACK – YEARS (by one thousand fingertips)

Canada’s Attack In Black begun life as a post-hardcore outfit, but you would be hard-pressed to hear that from their third album Years (by one thousand fingertips). Eight years on and their music is more Neil Young than Dead Kennedys. While the guitars are kept on a tight leash, let off for the briefest of slow-core bursts on the likes of Birmingham and Liberties, it is the warm West Coast melodies that highlight an album that clocks in at 16 tracks and just shy of an hours worth of music. If I Could Turn has strong overtones of Sun Kil Moon, whilst elsewhere the fragile Leather Jacket and Messenger Bird makes one ponder how good it would be to hear Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young singing Will Oldam songs. The diversity of arrangements – while keeping the same basic band instrumentation – creates a substantial work here, with  an extremely impressive level of craftsmanship. Perhaps a few tracks could be trimmed to create a tighter work, but then again it’s hard to know which ones.

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