STRFKR - Being No One, Going Nowhere

STRFKR
Being No One, Going Nowhere
2016
Spotify

For this their fourth album STRFKR have taken a bit of a different approach. Writer Josh Hodges spent a great deal of time in isolation in Joshua Tree when writing these songs in an attempt to capture feeling small amongst an oppressive natural habitat. The results are an album that is more refined and much more introspective than anything they have done before. The sound will be familiar if not slowed down a bit yet many of these jams will still bang in the club. "Satellite" is a much more overtly indie track than we are used to from STRFKR but the syncopated bass and claps make this one of the warmest tracks on the record. STRFKR have taken the 80s sound which is all the rage right now and woven it into their sound in a really nice way on this record. Much of the album really feels like letting go, allowing your consciousness to sort of exist without preoccupations or any baggage you bring to it. This give the record a strong sense of artistic freedom. Being No One, Going Nowhere sounds similar to Phoenix, M83 and Tame Impala sonically but there is a slight something that does set it apart.

What you get with this album however is just pretty good. The album is nice, some of the songs are dancey, but you never feel that rush of something new and fun. There is a real lack of anything to really hold on to or get excited about on this record because it is following suit with much of the other music from the last couple of years. It is an album that is very much of it's own time but potentially that means that it will not hold up as tastes change. The space STRFKR gives these tracks to roam is nice on one hand, but on the other it doesn't seem like they are making strong decisions one way or another. The Sci-Fi element also cannot be discounted with interludes like "interspace". Clearly Hodges did quite a bit of star gazing while out in Joshua Tree because those elements make their way on to this record. In the end this album tends to be quite middle of the road, or maybe just a bit better. There is nothing overtly bad, but nothing that will blow your skirt up either. So we end up somewhere right in the middle with this one.

7.0 out of 10