It has been 13 years since Should's last album proper, the complex shoegaze/postrock haze of 1998's Feed Like Fishes.
While much time has passed, the core elements of Should have not wavered: the ultra-sweet male/female vocal melodies, the penchant for the unexpected, and the ability to find beauty in the minimal.
The band's immaculately crafted third album, Like a Fire Without Sound, infuses the pop sensibilities of Eno and Yo La Tengo while maintaining the personal eccentricities and atmospheric flourishes that have always set Should apart.
Like a Fire Without Sound was conceived and recorded over a five-year period, and infuses idiosyncratic indie flair with pleasing pop sensibilities. Bookended by Eno-esque tributes "Glasshouse" and "The Great Pretend," the hook-laden record is simultaneously spacious and intimate.
Eschewing the fashionable trend of burying production in cavernous lo-fi reverb and fuzz, Like a Fire Without Sound is not warmed-over 1990s-era Should. The layers of fuzzed guitar have been peeled back and the pop quotient is dialed up considerably, aiming instead to balance the twin peaks of soundcraft and songcraft.
The end result of these efforts is an unpredictable record that - like Eno's early pop albums - endures and is not easily ascribed to a particular era.
“Timeless yet out-of-place, it’s the unwavering soundtrack to daydreams of life’s losses and loves!”
First video from the album "Like A Fire Without Sound" by Should (Words On Music, 2011).
Films Disappear Here Filmed, Edited & Directed by Dustin Lane Art Direction & Color Timing by Sherry Lee
Two songs from the forthcoming album by Should to be released on Words On Music in April 2011. More information about the album can be found at www.words-on-music.com/WM32.html
All about Should
Should originated in Austin, Texas, writing, recording, and performing under the name shiFt. Inspired after hearing LilysIn the Presence of Nothing on Slumberland, Marc Ostermeier formed Should together with Tanya Maus and his brother Eric. The unique sound of their first recordings sprang from their unorthodox songwriting and recording technique. Songs were built around guitar phrases recorded onto cassette that were then sampled and looped using an Ensoniq EPS sampler. An overloaded 4-channel mixer was the primary source of disortion. Their debut six song CD-EP on Austin's ND label, 1995's A Folding Sieve, is a shining landmark of the 1990's American shoegazer scene and received a fair share of critical acclaim.
However, limited distribution and an aversion to touring left Should in semi-obscurity. After a 7" on ND in 1997, newly-founded Words On Music released Should's first full length CD, Feed Like Fishes, in late 1998. A wonderfully complicated album of noisy, sedate, and minimal pop songs, Feed Like Fishes falls somewhere between shoegazer, slowcore and postrock. Reviewers offered up artists such as Yo La Tengo, Slowdive, Galaxie 500 and Brian Eno as reference points, but Should's unique sound was apparent.
In 2002 Words On Music re-released A Folding Sieve, doubling the number of tracks of the original EP. Added to the original seven songs are both tracks from a 1997 7" single that featured a version of Jean Paul Sartre Experience's "Own Two Feet," a cover of 18th Dye's "Merger," and four unreleased songs recorded in 1995 and 1996.
Should contributed an odd, loungy instrumental cover of "Outdoor Miner" to Words On Music's 2004 tribute to the seminal Wire song.
In December 2010 Should finished recording their third album, Like a Fire Without Sound, which will be released in April 2011 on Words On Music.
*Porta's favourite!*
— “[Should] invest your world with wonder. They make you want to babble improbable metaphors to describe their music. When that happens, you're in the presence of greatness.”—Alternative Press
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“Slow, winding melodies, dense, layered guitars, buried vocals and enough white noise to bring My Bloody Valentine out of retirement.”—CMJ
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“Sheer brilliance!”—The Big Takeover
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“Soundtrack music for the mind.”—Magnet
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“The trio's stubborn quest for beauty relies on very few elements and stands in stark contrast with the bombast of contemporary rock.”—Piero Scaruffi
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“This is so pretty it almost hurts.”—Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover
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