Whilst other bands changed their sound to fit with the scene, Les Savy Fav stuck to their guns and patiently waited for the scene to come to them. Eventually, after sporadic releases and a hiatus that put all the fans on edge, it happened. Taking this time out gave them an opportunity to stride away from their abrasive noisy angular sound of old, 2007’s marvellous Lets stay Friends saw them settle into new territory. Fully realised songs to be enjoyed and cherished rather than merely listened to, it was a rebirth and a contrast. This vastly refined and certainly diverse transformation not only gained them the critical acclaim they long deserved, but the admiration of older fans alike. Root for Ruin suggests the band has gone full circle, whilst retaining what we loved with the last release, the tunes to back it up.
Appetites effortlessly sets the scene with a familiar spiky guitar intro and could be mistaken for anything off earlier releases such as Go Forth. Its repetitive vocal chant of “We still got our appetites” feels like a mantra, and an apt start to the album. It leads nicely into Dirty Knails, which continues the pace, a riff heavy monster of a track akin to “The Equestrian” from the aforementioned release.
Both Sleepless in Silverlake and Let’s get out of here are killer single material, through the small cracks in Tim Harrington’s unusually sentimental, gentle vocals, you can hear a beast trying to escape. The latter of the two builds into an anthem worthy of festival sing-along. Next, Lips n’ Stuff slowly reveals itself as a bit of a monster in hiding, with its stupidly good hook revealed in the last minute of the track; “Lets pretend were innocent / were just friends with benefits.” It would have been nice for this to be revealed throughout, rather than saving it for the end.
Either way, it is an interesting change in an already great track. In many ways, this unconventional approach to song writing is what they have not only succeeded at in the past, but has become a nuance of their overall sound. Strangely, the unconventional becomes uninspiring with Poltergeist, by far the weakest track on the album, providing little more than morose Joy Division-esque vocals accompanied by reverberated guitars. Fortunately, the rest of the album is excellent. A chaotic mixture of engaging catchy punk.
Root for Ruin has managed to combine skilful, passionate and catchy song writing with balls-out punk ideologies. As a result, it is without question an ample follow up to a release that is difficult to better. However unlike Lets Stay Friends, it is less immediate, but by no means any less enjoyable. Like all great albums, it takes a few listens to worm its way inside. On the basis of this, they are without question one of the best American bands around at the moment. Kings of contemporary, forward thinking melodic art punk.
9/10
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