Buildings - Melt, Cry, Sleep

Despite their debut Braille Animal coming out in 2008, I’d never heard of Buildings up until last year. It may or may not have been the best time to discover them, since just as soon as I had a chance to listen to Braille Animal I was made aware that they had a new album coming out in only a matter of a month or two. I’m not sure if that complicates things sometimes, but the immediate reaction is always the more the merrier. Their debut was a pretty solid offering of noisy inspired rock with some Midwestern influences thrown in for good measure. That’s not all surprising though given their locale of Minneapolis, which as many know, has a rather significant history with that type of music. By and large Buildings are an obvious product from which they are from.

As far as Melt, Cry, Sleep goes, the band hasn’t necessarily changed their sound much but definitely have steered further towards the noisier side of things, with a more noticeable influence closer to Jesus Lizard…particularly on the track “I Don’t Love My Dog Anymore”. I like the fact that the production isn’t super slick, leaving it a rougher aesthetic that bands of the same style occasionally forgo, which I’ll never quite understand. In a way these guys are pursuing a similar type of path as Young Widows, at least with the first couple albums I’d say, but with an increased habit of latching onto bigger riffs at times. Not sure how much further they can go with this sound, but I’m up for hearing more. Overall, good stuff if this is your sort of thing.

Buildings – Wrong Cock (stream)

Anyone that wish to pick this up can do so by hitting up Doubleplusgood for the CD version or the recently resurrected Cash Cow Records for the LP. And of course, there is always Bandcamp for the digital only folks out there.