Now a trio, many of Nineteen Forty-Five's recent shows have opened with the propulsive "She Takes Drugs," which sets the tone for a deceptively rocking set of often sad and reflective abstract poetry. The meter of singer/guitarist Hunter Manasco's fragmented wordplay is often lost in the shards of noise from his guitar. Katharine McElroy's bass and vocals, mixed teasingly toward the middle by David Barbe, add to both the high and low ends of Nineteen Forty-Five's sonic assault. Like a mating of X as warbling Southern gothic slackers and "She's a Rainbow"-era Rolling Stones, the band's fuzzy onslaught of angular pop melodies recalls turgid Washing Machine-period Sonic Youth.
Live and on record, Nineteen Forty-Five's major flaw is Manasco's rather limited vocal range. On "Halo," his unadorned drone is all too evident, and through the remainder of the album, it remains steadfastly average and monotonous.
Yet his ragged delivery usually works within the context of the band. Beneath Manasco and McElroy's wall of bittersweet howling pulses drummer Will Lochamy's guiding wallop. His steady beat keeps the majority of the album from dissolving into a series of mournful cigarettes-and-beer-fueled self-analysis.
Nineteen Forty-Five plays The Earl Sat., April 26.
