Future Women

Album Review

The M's' Future Women is a sprawling, thrillingly day-glo burst of indie rock glory. Combining the angular guitar attack of early-'90s guitar bands, the unrelenting hookiness of the mid-'90s chamber poppers, and the anything goes psychedelia of the Elephant 6 crew, the band is at once familiar and staggeringly fresh sounding. The Illinois foursome has a keen ear for melody and a nimble arranging touch, throwing in all kinds of strings, horns, percussion, bells, and harmonica and never sounding cluttered or forced. Indeed, some of the choices are inspired ("Trucker Speed"'s marching-band-with-strings middle section, the big-band brass in "Mansion on the Valley," and "Underground"'s overdriven handclaps and garage rock organ sound), and show the bandmembers to be daredevils with no qualms about going over the top in the quest for sonic greatness. Of course, inspired arrangements and sonic greatness are hollow victories without the songs to provide a foundation, and Future Women is loaded with gems like the Bolan-esque balladry of "Light I Love," the rollicking and fuzzed-out "My Gun," the melancholy epic "Darling Lucia," and the rollicking "Plan of the Man," which kicks the album off so dramatically that the rest has to be near perfect to measure up. And it is about as perfect a slice of indie rock as one could ever hope for. The M's aren't revivalists or copyists; Future Women is the sound of what happens when all the best aspects of indie pop and rock collide and explode — the sound of a band getting it right and maybe even teaching those who came before them a thing or two. Definitely the sound of a band indie lovers need to check out immediately.