ALBUM REVIEW: Eternal Life Now – Bad Pelicans
BAD PELICANS emerged from Paris’ punk scene in early 2020; they rode that wave with their previous record and stuck with what they knew but since then have decided to depart from it. They approach with their new album Eternal Life Now, boasting distorted art-rock served with a side of grunge. This Parisian trio have evolved into a being of earthy distortion after the discovery of their new found avant-garde energy.
Eternal Life Now is packed full of gems, plenty of which do what they say on the tin with no attempt to put up an illusion. Opening with Paris, the trio introduce themselves through this piece of their identity, with throbbing riffs that cause you to wade through the track instead of rush through head first. Paris is captured through the warped lens of BAD PELICANS – statuesque and seriously monochrome. The following Dance Music exaggerates deep vocals from Lucas Lecacheur and subjects the lust and passion of, well, dance music, all before diving into sharp, scorching riffs which engulf the track in the same passion of any good dance track.
As the record goes on it shows its true duality of light and dark, as previously mentioned it’s monochrome and everything akin to that. Best Friends demonstrates the raw and pure love that is felt for the closest of people to you, pairing it with harsh riffs like a lot of the moments throughout the album, it draws that emotion out in the best way possible. Despite their fierce eagerness to illustrate the record with rough textures, there is breathing room to be found at a few different points. Slow lyrics spill from the lips of Lecacheur in Flex Hang 4; his vocals are soft and edgeless, making them feel detached from even the slow bass line which mimics his melody.
Like all records, Eternal Life Now eventually finds itself at a crossroads where it can either continue with the safety of what has worked really well, or it can lean into what has given it variety. Unfortunately it plays things safe, continuing with big riffs and distorted vocals. It’s sold as an art-rock album but definitely leans heavily on noise elements and eventually grows stale. There are points when the lighter elements of art-rock pierce through and momentarily steal the show like in Best Friends, which borrows a brighter sound for its main riff from surf punk. It’s the small glimpses like these where BAD PELICANS are at their most palpable and that monochromatic duality shines the brightest.
Most of all, Eternal Life Now doesn’t really know what it is, but that being said it’s a record that is fun to listen to. If you can take that value from it, it shouldn’t really matter that it can find itself in a minor identity crisis here and there. Still, it’s evident that the Parisian trio are damn good at making noise.
Rating: 7/10
Eternal Life Now is out now via Géographie Recs.
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