Arms - Kids Aflame

Melodic

A swathe of soothing, ethereal noise and then, suddenly, out of the emotional twilight, guitars come diving like airborne predators, swooping time and again on the warm thermals of Todd Goldstein’s vocal. The opening segue of ‘Sabretooth Typist’ into ‘Whirring’ makes for a formidable first impression and it is a standard that is maintained throughout Kids Aflame, the startling debut from Arms, aka 26-year-old Brooklynite Goldstein. Intricately carved melodies are coupled with a voice that recalls David Byrne, simultaneously haughty but compassionate, these elements used in songs which swing from the sweetly meandering, melancholic pop of ‘John The Escalator’ to the raw indie-rock of ‘Tiger Tamer’. However, what really sets Arms apart is the way in which these tracks recast the myths of contemporary music, the usual old stories of love gone awry, loneliness and the search for some personal truth, sounding newly formulated. This is immortal indie, the sort written by young men locked in their bedrooms with nothing more than a clutch of Carson McCullers’ novels and Smiths’ records for company. Francis Jones

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DOWNLOAD: ‘KIDS AFLAME’, ‘SAD SAD SAD, ‘SABRETOOTH TYPIST’.
FOR FANS OF: THE DEARS, SUEDE, THE ISLES.

Issue #50 - The Power To Know

Featuring The Top 50 NI Songs of Our Lifetime, The Streets, Deerhoof, Seasick Steve, Fucked Up, Garth Ennis and more.