Review: Performance by White Denim

Today, Austin, Texas rock band White Denim released their album, Performance. You might recognise the band name because I talked about them in an earlier post, my top 100 rock songs of 2000-2018.

This album is a follow up to their 2016 album, Stiff. I found out about the release just checking out my YouTube subscriptions and I’ll be doing a straightforward track by track review of the album. Enjoy!

1. “Magazin”

Not sure if this is a typo or if the title is just French for shop. The sounds of this song are reminiscent of the 70s and 90s. I like this song, but it’s not my favourite on the album, but it was the song that introduced me to the band.

2. “Performance”

This song sounds psychedelic and psychedelic and kind of reminds me of early 2000s rock like The Strokes for some reason. There’s some calming piano and rocking guitar, which makes for an interesting combination. The song ends abruptly in a good way. Love it!

3. “Fine Slime”

The lyrics have a spoken delivery. This song mixes power pop with hard rock and garage rock. Spotify featured this song on their Alt. Rocked. playlist and White Denim are on the cover of the playlist. My favourite part of this is jam at about 3 minutes in. I can definitely see myself driving to this song, even though I have neither a car nor my licence. The music video can be found below.

4. “Double Death”

This song has a funky with a rock edge sound. The clapping with the percussion works well with it and I love the funky guitar at about 2:25.

5. “Moves On”

A more 70s hard rock inspired song with a mix of proggy elements, but not the length of prog. Definitely one of my favourites since I love prog and hard rock. Futuristic synths and nice percussion. I love the distortion of this song, which makes for a trippy listen.

6. “It Might Get Dark”

This song is poppy and totally 70s influenced. The instrumentals are amazing and the song is catchy and perfect for the summer. Well, summer is coming to an end here, but it’s coming up in the Southern Hemisphere.

7. “Sky Beaming”

This song is prog rock inspired, odd time signature and jazzy percussion and synths, but with indie vocals.

8. “Backseat Driver”

Love the organ in this song and the fuzzy sound.

9. “Good News”

The album ends with this more acoustic pop song. Like the first song, I get a combination of 70s and 90s. The distorted and fuzzy ending is really psychedelic and ties together the album well.

Overall:

This is not an album with all the songs having a similar sound, which is good. I like the diversity of sounds and influences. It’d be cool to own this album on vinyl, but I’ve been putting buying vinyl on pause for now.

It’s basically updated 70s rock, fresh and enjoyable. My favourite tracks are “Fine Slime”, “Moves On”, “It Might Get Dark”, “Good News”.

Is this going on my Perfect Albums list? Maybe not upon this listen, and I prefer Stiff. I definitely prefer the second half of the album to the first half. If they come to Ireland, I might want to see them live. We need more good bands like this.

The album is available for streaming on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Music. You can purchase the CD or LP here.