It’s impossible to listen to the debut album from Victoria, Canada rockers The Projectors and not immediately hear the debut the group owes to all the early aughts indie rock. But most importantly The Strokes. From the guitar tones to the percussion, the group is reaching to capture the sound of a bygone era. Thankfully they do it well, and with a little extra sugar in the mix.
“I’ll be stumbling on my words, ‘Cause I’ve got a million of ’em, some of which you might’ve misheard,” is one of many great lines on the album (this one specifically from “Tired of the Small Talk”), possibly because it’s poking fun at the dry, sometimes barely decipherable delivery frontmen like Julian Casablancas made popular in the early 2000’s, almost as if they were too cool to annunciate. What The Projectors‘ frontman Dylan Rysstad does so well is bring some warmth, sweetness and clarity to the vocals that nudge the group in the direction of some of the 70’s power pop groups that likely inspired a number of the NY indie scene twenty years ago.
It’s probably one of the main elements separating the band from those groups. The Projectors‘ rhythm section as the hip-shaking, club ready rock n’ roll sound down pat, getting things perfectly shaking on single “Golden Age” (which also has some fun with the aught rock aura with lines like “And it’s okay, it’s the golden age of indifference, so what’s the difference now”). Drummer Evan Matthiesen knows how to get things rolling and driving forward (listen to “Concessions), and his partner in crime Conor Brandt gets a bit of time to show off on “You Can Only Wait”.
And the guitars…damn if those aren’t full of tinny upswings and new wave luster. Robbie Shirriff and Dustin Tiljoe play off each other well, adding great melodies and counter-melodies to “When the Lights Came Up”, and also knowing when to bring things down to a moseying drawl like on The Walkmen-inspired “Slow it Down”. Of course they sound like they are having the most fun on energized cuts like the fuzzy and in-your-face closer “Valentine”.
Frontman Rysstad is not hiding that his band sounds like The Strokes; “With the first couple songs, ‘When the Lights Came Up’ and ‘Golden Age’, I really embraced certain influences and didn’t try to obscure or hide the fact that it was starting to sound like someone else.” That “someone else” being said NY rockers. And while Rysstad’s lyrics engage in some nostalgia, conjuring the 50’s with “A little off the cuff, jean jacket sleeves rolled up. Cigarette hangin’ just so” (“You Can Only Wait”), the sound he’s embracing still holds up twenty years down the line. As he sings wistfully on “Lost in Spaces”, “The days drift away, the nights take me down slow, tomorrow’s only got eyes for you”, one could imagine the “you” he’s singing to are all those bands he loves and is openly cribbing from, since in Rysstad’s eyes, that’s the music that he’s taking with him into his days to come.
The Projectors is out now on Sakamano Records. You can stream it here.
The Indy Review 