White Denim - Workout Holiday
White Denim have been getting a lot of press over on these shores this year, even getting a mention here on R13 when we first reported on them at this years SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. Working Holiday is the debut album from this Texas trio, so does it match up to the hype that is currently surrounding the band here?
The debut album kicks off with “Let’s Talk About It” and “Shake Shake Shake” both of which are psychedelic rock tracks starting with The Hives style before moving off to the kooky side of things. The third track “Sitting” is a slower more bluesy number which seems to be out of place especially as the next tracks are back to the opening style. “Mess Your Hair Up” the fifth track is just under five minutes long of head bobbing enjoyment, even if it does get a little obscure towards the end.
The album takes a melodic turn with “Heart From Us All” before moving into a shout out load vocals track in “All You Really Have To Do”. After the obscure instrumental “Look That Way At It” comes “Darksided Computer Mouth” with its impressive guitar riffs and party sounding vocals.
The final three tracks see another instrumental in “WDA” along with “Don’t Look That Way At It” and “IEIEI” can all be described as being slightly off the wall. “IEIEI” sees chanting more than singing.
Quite possibly this would have worked better as an EP and a few of the lesser tracks left off. Maybe the album tries too much on occasions to be as diverse as possible but considering that White Denim only formed in 2006 and they have already reached this level in that short time makes you think there is a lot more to come from the trio. They are currently playing dates all over the place here at the moment before heading back home to play the prestigious Austin City Limits Festival. Austin is currently producing a lot of good new music and White Denim with their diverse mix of styles can be considered part of that. So much so that they picked up the Best New Band award in the Austin Music Awards earlier this year.