I don't know. The back half of 2021 saw -- at least where I was looking -- a lot of hype for Geese as an heir to The Strokes. I get it: young, up and coming NYC band with a DIY/garagey sound. Fine, but I'd honestly take Gustaf and their album if I had to choose in the New York space.1 The thing is, that sound is not confined to Gotham. In fact, north of the border in Toronto, Motorists cooked up a mélange of sound on their 2021 debut LP, Surrounded. (We Are Time [US], Bobo Integral [most everywhere else]). The trio jangle their way through twelve tracks that consistently marry the post-punk of Gang of Four or Pylon with the 80s college radio sensibilities of REM. And yeah, those are lofty comparisons, but Motorists deliver time and again.
The title track kicks things off catchily enough, but it feeds into the even hookier "Vainglorious." Then you spend the rest of the record saying to yourself, "It can't get any catchier/hookier than this, can it?" I don't know that it does match those first two cuts, but damn, it comes close.
...a lot.
This record reminds me of that Barney Stinson line about the science behind a good (music) mix from the early New Year's Eve episode of How I Met Your Mother: "Now, people often think that a good mix should rise and fall, but people are wrong. It should be all rise, baby!"
Surrounded rises quickly and maintains a plateau throughout. It is one of the most underrated albums of 2021. I mean, the lo-fi 80s VHS video for the title track -- complete with masked drummer (yeah, covid mask) -- should sell you on that right off the bat.
Notes:
1 Seriously, with a record called Audio Drag for Ego Slobs, how could you not give the nod to Gustaf anyway?
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