Capulet - The World Is A Tragic World, But There Is Grace All Around Us, So Attend To The Grace

Capulet's new album features a sesquipedalian title, two tracks that stretch beyond the ten-minute mark, 'inventive' packaging and 'creative' punctuation. Somebody, it seems, has taken their admiration for Godspeed You Black Emperor! a bit too far. Sadly, but perhaps inevitably, 'The World…' isn't nearly as groundbreaking or as mind-blowing as GYBE!'s best long-form prog-punk freakouts. To be fair, the album features a few moments of real beauty, particularly on No Time Spoke the Clocks, but their influences, which include Slint's 'Spiderland' and dozens of lesser post-punk records, show through far too easily. The record's production is also rather clumsy; its guitar feedback has a blunt, rocky, edge that seems inappropriate for such esoteric material. It seems strange that such self-consciously 'difficult' music should sound so stale, but the avant-garde becomes the ordinary pretty fast in these latter days. [Andrew Monroe]