When I think of DFA records, I immediately associate the label with people dancing, drinking, and essentially acting like retards with poor decision-making skills. Not that those are bad things. At all. I don’t need my music to be all deep and emotional or whatever. Sometimes (often) I just want to dance and not think about, well, anything at all. DFA fulfills this need, and I consider the label to be almost entirely responsible for this whole indie-dance-punk-revolution thing that has happened in recent years. DFA bands like LCD Soundsystem and the Rapture (to name the well-known) exemplify the label’s philosophy – the music is all about having fun, and that’s cool with me, because fun is like, totally enjoyable. Doesn’t everyone want Daft Punk to play at their house? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Anyway, I say all of this simply to point out that New Zealand’s Shocking Pinks is not a typical DFA band. Sure, the beat is still there. Sometimes. But mostly it’s just one guy (Nick Harte) making a lo-fi racket with all of my favorite instruments and singing glum, earnest lyrics about how he feels. And it’s not even annoying.

Quite the contrary.

Perhaps the only DFA-esque quality to the 17-track record is the percussion, which is front and center on most of the tracks. As the ex-drummer for the Brunettes, it makes sense that Harte would use rhythm and the drums to carry his music. “Smokescreen” is probably the closest Shocking Pinks gets to the rowdy and frivolous; the track is pure dance-punk, DFA-style. The loud and lyricless “Cutout” also brings the dancefloor to mind.

However, tracks like “End of the World,” which is the obvious standout on the record, are of an entirely different stock. The drums are still lively, but all I hear is the saddest synth in the world and Harte’s scruffy, gloomy voice. “I Want U Back” is so reminiscent of Psycholand-era the Jesus and Mary Chain that it’s hard to tell whether it’s a blatant rip-off or just an homage, but either way, it’s my favorite track on the album. And “Emily,” with it’s drumkit racket and synths, may be a song about jealousy, but jealousy has never been so fun.

Because the album is essentially a compilation of two previous Shocking Pinks records (released in 2005 on New Zealand’s Flying Nun label), it makes sense that the sound is sort of all over the place. On one track Harte will be all haze and drone, the next he’ll sound like early-era New Order, then back to the standard dance-punk of DFA, then he’ll make all sorts of lo-fi electric guitar noise, and then back again. What is constant is Harte’s attention to lyrics and the emotion behind them. Just think of Shocking Pinks as the sensitive kid brother in the DFA family. Sometimes it’s ok to have feelings, even when you’re dancing.

Release Date:
Label: DFA Records

Rating: 7.5/10

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