Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Fly By Wire (Album Review)
Friday, 13 September 2013
Written by Huw Baines
“What's in a name?” they said. Well, for Someone Still Love You Boris Yeltsin, perhaps more than they bargained for.
The trio, who hail from Springfield, Missouri, are back with album number four following a short, surreal spell as U.S cultural ambassadors to Russia - which entailed dealings with the late president's foundation, shows at schools, and a forthcoming documentary, Discussions With Russians - and the departure of multi-instrumentalist and co-vocalist John Cardwell.
Emerging from this cloud is 'Fly By Wire', the follow-up to 2010's 'Let It Sway', and a deliberate return to the lo-fi spirit that propelled the band's debut, 'Broom'. Like that record, this effort was recorded in the attic of Will Knauer's parents' house and they do have a shared DNA.
'Fly By Wire' isn't subdued as such, but many of the more direct moments that characterised 'Let It Sway' and its predecessor, 'Pershing', have been dialled back a touch. Woozy harmonies mingle with largely acoustic compositions until the record's lead single, Nightwater Girlfriend, injects a layer of fuzz late on in proceedings.
It is another wallflower of an album, one whose intricacies only emerge after time, and each of Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin's previous releases possessed at least a touch of the same quality. They demanded long-term commitment and, as relationships went, they were mightily rewarding but not all that immediate.
Harrison Ford, Lucky Young and Unearth all carry heady melodies and a layer of echo on the vocals that give off an air of '80s detachment, like the Jesus And Mary Chain playing a summer picnic, while the early one-two of Young Presidents and Cover All Sides highlights the breadth of the band's melodic nous. Young Presidents bounces around over sharp keyboards, while its follow-up is an ethereal, dreamy ballad.
As a whole, 'Fly By Wire' is another fine entry into a canon that really should have seen Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin operating a little higher up the indie-popfoodchain by now.
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