I've been waiting for Versions of Modern Performance the debut album from impossibly young Chicago female trio Horsegirl with as much anticipation as any for really quite a long time. They've been featuring on this blog ever since I first heard them a couple of years back, and now the record's finally here I'm pleased to be able to say, it doesn't remotely disappoint..
For anyone with a certain musical disposition and tastes, they're a godsend. With a sound most obviously constructed around the shared love of Sonic Youth's poised distortion, they're imposibly cool and informed about the legacy of alternative rock music they've chosen and what makes it so thrilling and transcendental.
In much the same way as I was transfixed the first time I heard The Strokes Modern Age EP, more than 20 years back, Horsegirl immediately set my anntenae up. Versions is the sound of three people in thrall to this stuff and also utterly aware of how it works.
It's the self awareness of the band that's most astonishing frankly. Able already to self-mythologise to such an acute degree, there's a track on here called The Fall of Horsegirl another called The Guitar is Dead 3, a reasonable assumption to form at this late stage. Lyrical references to Horses and Marquee Moon They're perfectly aware of just how good they are and are going to be.
Every song on here, is quite immediate in its appeal. Here's what this reminded me of on first play. Blondie, the whole record brought those opening chords of Union City Blue to mind again and again. Punk, New Wave, Post Punk, Shoegaze, Grunge and Riot Girl all at once. Joy Division, (the quite deliberate 'Dance, Dance, Dance to the radio' echoes of opener Anti-glory. Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine and early Teenage Fanclub. They make me think of good stuff.
But mostly, they're just themselves and I'm so pleased to hear a record that reminds me of why I fell so deeply for this stuff in the first place. I can't imagine hearing another record of this sort that impacts on me in quite this way in 2022. Horsegirl have got it. Frankly, they have the world at their feet.
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