Tall Firs – Out Of It And Into it

Indie aristocracy all seem to agree that Tall Firs are a bit special. Having spent the last decade sharing stages with and impressing the likes of Shellac, Sonic Youth, Stephen Malkmus and Kurt Vile theirs is an intimidating roll-call of endorsements. Onto their third album, the prevailing ambience is of wistful, relaxed, mildly dissonant, lo-fi shoegaze.

 

Yet there is a strong and undeniable country fixation that pokes out repeatedly throughout the album's modest 34 minutes, albeit heavily filtered through some textbook 'Generation X' racalcitrance. Imagine a stoned Thurston Moore attempting to soundtrack the writing of Douglas Coupland. Axeman is something of a stand-out track here, albeit the phrase is something of a contradiction in terms as nearly all the songs shrug reluctantly at the side of the dance-floor rather than daring to walk up to any girls. For sure, this is not an album to set your world alight, but it could provide the score as you burn one down.