Seattle indie rockers Telekinesis follow up their critically acclaimed self titled debut with '12 Desperate Straight Lines', an album sprinkled with powerful and catchy indie pop nuggets, a lot of fuzz, occasional distortion and straight forward, heartfelt lyrics. The fact alone that the record was even made is testimony to the bands founder Michael Benjamin Lerners belief in his own song writing.
When Lerner set out to record the songs for '12 Desperate Straight Lines' in the summer of 2010, he found himself with no band, a case of vertigo and a wrecked van. Alone in Berlin, he holed up in a rented room and spent hours writing the majority of the songs for the new record. Returning to a rain soaked Seattle, Lerner once again hooked up with Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie), who produced the first Telekinesis record, and managed, in between impromptu dance parties and recording drum parts backwards, to get the album finished.
The albums opener 'You Turn Clear in the Sun', begins with Lerner confessing “we fell in love in the summer by spring time we were done”, and is a cautionary tale of summer love and loss with a underlying, infectious groove and some brilliant swirling keyboards. This slice of pop giddiness is followed by the superb 'Please Ask for Help', which can only be described as what The Cure may sound like on Prozac. It again highlights Lerners very obvious ability as a songwriter of the bittersweet love song. Other standout tracks come in the shape of 'Patterns', a crooked and quirky ballad with inter textual references to Paul Simon and the dirty, lowdown sludge glam of 'Gotta Get it Right Now'.
Where '12 Desperate Straight Lines' gets let down however, is in its inconsistency. While the above mentioned tracks stood out, the rest of the album is less memorable and dare we say somewhat filler. Lerner is an artist who wears his heart on his sleeve and these influences are obvious on his better songs and the albums lesser songs most definitely suffer as a consequence.
So with the van fixed, the vertigo all but gone and a brand new band to tour with, Telekinesis have returned with a record that while maybe not crying out with originality, is certainly one that should brighten up a grey February day and have you thinking about summer.
'12 Desperate Straight Lines' is released the 11th of February.
Stereoboard Album Rating: 6.5/10
