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  OLE9211LP  £10.00

Label

Matador

Cold Cave

Cherish The Light Years

Cold Cave are a band who are no doubt used to reading words such as grand, sweeping and eerie in their reviews, and this is simply because their music is such a grandiose, powerful affair theres only so many words you can use to try and summarise the music of the New York/Philadelphia based band. Their pulsating, glittering yet ultimately sad songs have been expanded further upon on their second record, Cherish The Light Years.

From the outset, their goal is clear as drums thud and keyboards whir into life within seconds of pressing the play button, as opening track The Great Pan Is Dead starts. The icy synthizers, yearning vocals and a healthy sense of drama help the track establish the tone for the record as vocalist Wesley Eisold (formerly of hardcore groups Give Up The Ghost and Some Girls) promises I will come running as the song soars. Its clear that Eisold is channelling the emotion of hardcore through a very different means here, though the sustained tension and drive here is likely to leave a far more lasting impact than the instant fulfilment of hardcore. The shroud of synthizers and thudding drum comes to the fore on later highlight Underworlds USA, which comes across like early Gary Numan with a bitter bent. Pacing The Church proudly wears its Factory records influences on its sleeve as spiking guitars weave over urgent drums as Eisold intones about exploding stars, broken homes and chasing ghosts in fabulous fashion- his delivery emotive without being overwrought as the music behind him drives, leaving enough room for his sloganeering cry of You can seldom count on love/You can often count on hate/You can always count on death.

The thudding Confetti, jagged Alchemy and You and jangly Catacombs display the breadth of Eisolds vision, taking a slew of influences- Robert Smiths deadpan delivery, the driving electronics of New Order, the arch lyricism of Morrissey, the bursts of noise and drama of Xiu Xiu (its worth nothing that Xiu Xius Caralee McElroy was once a member)- and channelling them through Eisolds own gauze. The standout here is Icons Of Summer which holds all the bands strengths together over a masterfully sustained six minutes leaving the listener drained yet enthralled.

Cherish The Light Years is an accomplished, layered record; songs that, on first listen, seem to buckle under the weight of their influences and idea eventually give way to immensely memorable and utterly likeable love-letters to sad-eyed indie discos of decades ago.

Joseph Fuller

Tracklist

• 1 — Great Pan Is Dead
• 2 — Pacing Around the Church
• 3 — Confetti
• 4 — Catacombs
• 5 — Underworld USA
• 6 — Icons of Summer
• 7 — Alchemy and You
• 8 — Burning Sage
• 9 — Villains of the Moon