All Eyes West - All Eyes West - CD (2011)

Labels: Jump Start Records
Review by: Oli Saunders

I have been learning to play the drums since around the start of the year. I bought a drumkit a few months back and since they have been at it every few days, slowly making progress, starting out as a sloppy mess to now being a not quite so sloppy mess. My neighbours have been pretty okay about it, one even askd me to play louder and faster. Unfortunately my efforts have finally made me an enemy, since about ten minutes ago a woman across the garden started swearing at me.

Dear neighbour,

You should really appreciate me trying to play Slint, because they are really fucking good. How am I going to get close to being as good as the drummer from All Eyes West without A LOT of practice? I saw them play in Bristol and Cardiff in June and the drummer gave a masterclass, effortless in his actions while his flowing arms smashed away to perfection. I’m not sure if it’s actually the same guy playing on this album and in any case a recording can’t begin to come close to seeing him live. Awesome.

This album itself is a very solid punk effort, drawing comparisons with the likes of Jawbreaker and The Foo Fighters (admittedly this is from the promo sheet but I agree with it). The album starts off with its best songs and goes a little flat half half way through – I found this was the case live too to some extent. But this is something I’ll definitely play from time to time, nodding my head to ‘Fact Or Fiction?’ and ‘Help Is On The Way’ in particular, before flipping back to Duster. And if they tour again I will be there for sure.

That’s it for now, hope you are well,

From Oli

P.S. I’ll be playing Slint again tomorrow, but I’ll try and be a bit quieter, okay?

27th August 2011