Download: 60 Watt Kid – “2012″

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(from We Come From the Bright Side out now on Absolutely Kosher Records, et al.)
 
A couple months back, Derek from 60 Watt Kid gave me the demo version of their upcoming album, with hand-written instructions that more or less implied “Don’t share this pre-mix, or we’ll slit your face!”  After hearing the album months later, I can understand his desire for violent secrecy.  This final mix is so good.  If you’ve never heard 60 Watt Kid, We Come From the Bright Side will make you immediately fall in love with them.  If you have heard them, We Come From the Bright Side will let you enjoy 60 Watt Kid on a new level, allowing bright sonic tendrils to clutch your inner eardrums tightly, like a slumbering bear clinging to a sappy pine cone.  There’s a dynamic tension between singer Kevin’s spastic vocals (jumping from Chris Stamey to Nick Cave to Black Francis) and Derek’s pretty guitar licks: Kevin’s aggressive front-man-ism keeps the tunes from ever becoming too precious, and the solemn wonder of the melodies is too anthemic, wondrous, and spatial for Kevin’s belted lyrics to seem goofy, even at his most blunt.  In fact, Kevin gets away with didacticism that some bands would be hard-pressed to attempt, but here lyrics about taking “the pain out of your chest” work in wondrous ways, like Bowie ’s “Rock and Roll Suicide,” but with less orchestration and more hand-spun layered beauty.  There are very few bands as compelling as 60 Watt Kid, and there are very few albums that have come out this year that can compare to the aggressive beauty of We Come From the Bright Side.  Put on headphones, play this album, and remember what it was like to hear something old and familiar from your past for the very first time.

-Dan Collins