Unwound Albums (6)
'Leaves Turn Inside You'
Release Date 4/17/2001
Tracks 14
Label Kill Rock Stars
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
The title of the Tumwater, WA, trio Unwound's seventh studio album implies a subtle, personal, internal shift. A drift from summer into autumn, an undeterrable and, at base, unsettling change of self that's akin to a calm but determined change of seasons. Leaves Turn Inside You is the culmination of Unwound's three-year process of reinvention, and on first listen by anyone familiar with the band's trademark slash and burn abrasiveness, the transition seems anything but subtle. The path that led to the the band's first double album wasn't an abrupt and contrived stylistic leap, however. The members had aged a bit, taking the three years since recording 1998's Challenge for a Civilized Society to ponder their musical identities, an introspective windfall that led them to construct their MagRecOne (Magnetic Recording Academy) studio, and to the decision to self-produce an album for the first time in their ten-year history. At the end of two long years, the band had built and rebuilt MagRecOne, and labored under its own standards of quality control until the 14 songs that would make up Leaves Turn Inside You were finished. All the while, individual band members were occupied recording bands populated by kindred spirits who identified with the studio proprietors' methods and manifesto, and also working on side projects such as bass player Vern Rumsey's Long Hind Legs. The construction of a home studio afforded Unwound the one key resource that comes in such short supply and at great expense when recording in a professional studio: time. Probably the central reason for the lengthy wait between albums was the freedom recording at MagRecOne provided the band -- freedom to follow the entire cycle of an idea to its creative and logical end and, perhaps more importantly, freedom not to use the takes and/or ideas that didn't quite pan out the way they were intended. Conversely, however, there are the pitfalls of self-indulgence and obsession; it's just as easy to become overwhelmed by the myriad creative paths that may lead to a bloated, ridiculous album. Thankfully, the members of Unwound are savvy sonic economists, and almost never fail to trim the unnecessary fat. Perhaps another direct result of their recording circumstances, Unwound's members have explored their more melodic tendencies and incorporated them into their songwriting. Also, they show no apparent fear of unconventional instrumentation. The band eschews some of the more traditional rock equipment in favor of allowing harpsichord, slide guitar, and cello to sit alongside obscure bits like the Dynachord, Nordlead, and synthesizers that sound as though they were lifted from warped Prince LPs. That the members of Unwound are not necessarily seasoned engineers sometimes shines through, however. Even with longtime producer Steve Fisk in the studio to lend a hand, the production values (especially Sara Lund's usually cacophonous drumming) sometimes sound more like muffled firecrackers than raucous explosions. Leaves Turn Inside You opens with 11 notes of pure drone (ostensibly guitar), each individually dropping into the mix within the song's first ten seconds, and then held for two minutes like some hypnotic high school hearing evaluation, before the initial strains of "We Invent You" finally fade up through the haze. The perfect opening track, "We Invent You" is an anthemic exposition, and also an invitation: "Nothing will be the same/Concentrate on this phrase/Beyond this world I live" and "Collect your belongings/I'm inventing you." A mellotron and dual guitars then proceed to prime the album in a diaphanous, sonic sheen. This tone permeates even the rockers on the record, in light of which Unwound hasn't entirely abandoned the punk bite of its not-so-distant past. Another of the album's highlights, the heavy, arresting "Scarlette," is a scathing letter to a lover who is ignorant of its importance to the narrator. The song exemplifies the edgier songs on the record, which are rendered in a manner familiar to prior Unwound recordings while avoiding self-derivation. "December" and "Treachery" both bear the hallmarks of Repetition or Fake Train's best moments, while "Off This Century" is Unwound's noisy and resolute statement of a stalwart anti-market mentality, proffering a mistrust of the ideals insidiously propagated by the bloated conglomerates that populate corporate America. Unfortunately, in the midst of all this, singer/guitarist Justin Trosper reveals himself to be equipped with the mildly annoying tendency that many lyricists seem to have: the habit of forcing words into a song structure where they may not necessarily fit. This leaves some of the songs sounding clumsy and, Trosper not exactly being a crooner, his sometimes lackadaisical delivery can leave the songs teetering on the brink of lazy embarrassment. Fortunately, those moments are the exception rather than the rule. The record's finest moment comes in the form of the stunning "Demons Sing Love Songs." With languid diapasons serving as backing vocals (courtesy of Lund and Quasi/Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss), the band floats through what is easily the most beautiful moment on any Unwound recording, and would stand as a classic against any time-tested slice of psychedelia known to man. Somehow, Leaves Turn Inside You echoes itself. Listening to it can sometimes feel like walking down a long, dark, cavernous marble hallway, wherein notes reverberate on, off, and around themselves on their way to and from the ear canals of the listener. Unwound's new melodicism exudes the mood of a late summer afternoon, floating through the shimmer and haze of an indeterminate duration that asks you not to speculate on the length of the season, but allows you to bask in a kind of resigned confidence in the present. Ultimately, Leaves Turn Inside You is a unique, epic effort from one of the most inventive and dynamic rock bands in recent memory. ~ Bryan Carroll, All Music Guide
'Challenge for a Civilized Society'
Release Date 1/13/1998
Tracks 10
Label Kill Rock Stars
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What The Critics Say
Unwound's sixth album ranks among their best. Challenge for a Civilized Society is a study in extremes, as the group's noise assault reaches new pinnacles of raw abrasion. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Repetition is without question the most sleek and mood-encompassing album Unwound has released throughout the breadth of their career. Much of the familiar style they established on New Plastic Ideas is here, boiled down into an even more dark and thundering form, with some of the edges sanded down into beautiful, smooth layers. Ideas focus into sharp points, at one moment falling into swelling rolls of condensed sound and the next climaxing with Justin Trosper's affecting shriek and relentless feedback. This album will prove to merely hint at the direction the band would head on the even more thickly produced, but somehow less effective Challenge for a Civilized Society. Fresh Unwound listeners would be most pleased starting here; likewise, those already obsessed with the band will find this album quite fulfilling. ~ Blake Butler, All Music Guide
'The Future of What'
Release Date 1/1/1995
Tracks 17
Label Kill Rock Stars
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What The Critics Say
Taking their punk heritage from the Buzzcocks, Unwound write grinding, but tuneful songs. Most tracks rumble with a wandering bass while guitar fuzz coats the works. The vocals are intense, usually screamed. One atypical touch is the closer, a hypnotic quasi-ambient organ piece. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
With producer Steve Fisk at the helm, Unwound's first album bursts out of the gate with the opener "Dragnalus" and tears through a dozen songs of prime indie-grindcore, including "Star Spangled Hell" and "Pure Pain Sugar." ~ Keith Farley, All Music Guide
'New Plastic Ideas'
Release Date 3/18/1994
Tracks 9
Label Kill Rock Stars
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Unwound's second record of noise symphonies contains some more coherently focused attempts at songwriting than their debut effort, and, on a whole, the Fugazi meets Sonic Youth in a dark alley musical theatrics really start to sound polished this time around. Tracks like the opening "Entirely Different Matters" incorporate legitimate song structure into feedback laden chunks of sound, and the more relaxed "Hexenzsene" showcases the band's ability to create and evolve understated crescendos with big time results. Vocalist Justin Trosper's pained yelling and very nearly in-tune singing punctuates the album and works quite well in the overall mix. Drummer Sara Lund also proves her worth on this record, and her pounding contributions add amazing strength to tracks like the album's brilliantly abrasive and fractured centerpiece "All Souls Day." Compared to the more technically adept work the band moved towards on later records, New Plastic Ideas isn't their most groundbreaking, but in the scheme of things it sees the band move towards a darker and more note-oriented structure while still retaining the chugging dissonance that would continue to characterize them for their next few records. After this record, Unwound would move towards some more epic and exploratory compositions, but as far as their efforts at short and sweet noise bursts go, New Plastic Ideas catches them at their nosiest and most unadorned peak. ~ Peter J. D'Angelo, All Music Guide
