Close Only Counts
-----------------------------------------Spins --------------------------------------- Wooden Nickel Washed Out CD of the Week Within and Without BACKTRACKS $9.99 With the Sub Pop-issued Within Scorpions and Without, Washed Out’s honcho Animal Magnetism (1980) Ernest Greene becomes the latest in a seemingly endless line of New Released in 1980, this is the seventh Saviors of Sound. The vibe and ap- Scorpions album. It followed 1979’s peal here, however, really isn’t that commercially successful Lovedrive. The complex: Greene sings quite a bit Scorpions had reasonable success in Eu- like Panda Bear, a droning vocal rope and Japan, but this release and the backed by distant echoes. If he sounded any more like the Panda, single “The Zoo” gave them a global fan he’d have to pay the man royalties, his whimsy less and his melody base and put them on radio playlists throughout America. more. In 40 minutes, this record will take you into the twin heavy- The music of Within, however, is slightly more complex than metal guitars of Rudolf Schenker and Mathias Jabs (who replaced $9.99 Greene’s derivative vocal appeal. Keyboard and synth layers stack Jon Roth in ’78), to the gushy rock ballads from vocalist Klaus high, creating an atmospheric backdrop that’s driven by programmed Meine. I’d classify the group as hard rock, though most of the riffs KRIMSHA drums and buried baselines. You don’t really hear guitar riffs, horns, the band lays down have even tempos and rock arrangements and MAKE: BELIEVE piano or even strings on this record. The sound here is straight syn- aren’t “heavy metal.” Opening with “Make It Real,” the quicker “Don’t Make No The long wait for Krimsha’s full-length thetic, a vibe that, vocals aside, resembles Enigma more than it does, debut album is over.
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