Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 12/14/1999
Run Time: 49:47
If
the Pixies had been obsessive fans of Boston's earlier art-
punk heroes
Mission of Burma, they might have sounded like
Les Savy Fav. The New York quartet captures the edge-of-chaos frenzy that made
Come on Pilgrim and
Surfer Rosa classics of their time, but rather than exploding into incoherence the way
the Pixies were prone to do,
Les Savy Fav tend to either ratchet up the tension one more notch, as on the unbearably anxious
"We've Got Boxes," or shift into an unexpected
dub-style rhythmic section the way that
Fugazi or
Slint used to. The results are remarkably strong, thanks especially to the ultra-tight (even at top speed) rhythm section of bassist
Syd Butler and drummer
Harrison Haynes. Singer
Tim Harrington also deserves credit for steering (mostly) clear of the usual
emo "woe is me" clichés in his lyrics, preferring instead a mixture of concrete imagery and wry, sardonic one-liners. In a scene where the bands are starting to sound as predictable and cookie-cutter as
grunge bands became by 1994,
The Cat and the Cobra is proof that there's some life left in
emo.
~Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
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