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There’s something about Action Action that makes you a little distrustful of
their motives.
Maybe it’s because the members of the group came from the bits and pieces of
three emo bands (Reunion Show, Count the Stars, and Diffuser), then, upon the
release of their debut album as Action Action, 2004’s Don’t Cut Your Fabric
To This Year’s Fashion, managed to slap a sticker on its front which made a
point of recommending it if you like the Killers. No, there’s no denying that
fans of the Killers will dig the ‘80s-styled keyboard goings-on of Action
Action, but to so blatantly and unabashedly advertise it on the front of their
CD made it seem rather like these guys – Clarke Foley (vocals/bass), Adam
Manning (guitar), Dan Leo (drums), and Mark Thomas Kluepfel (vocals/keyboards) –
were doing some serious bandwagon-jumping.
Action Action’s new album, An Army of Shapes Between Wars, starts off by
sounding not entirely dissimilar from its predecessor, which doesn’t exactly
help their credibility cause. Opening track “Smoke and Mirrors” greets the
listener by informing them in no uncertain terms that things haven’t changed
very dramatically; a huge, hollow drum sound combines with Kluepfel’s synth to
produce a solid beginning to the disc. Fortunately, as the disc progresses, the
band makes a studied attempt at branching out beyond just the obvious synth-driven
numbers. Songs like the almost power-pop “The Game,” the mope-meets-twee “What
Temperature Does Air Freeze At?,” and the orchestral waltz stylings of “Attached
to the Fifth Story” go a long way toward expanding Action Action’s sonic
repertoire. “Paper Cliché” attempts to rock hard, but it’s ultimately not all
that memorable…and, unfortunately, that’s a problem that clings to several other
tracks as well, including “Analogue Logic” and about half of “Sleep Paralysis,”
the latter descending into two interminable minutes of sounds which could’ve
been taken from an early ‘80s video game.
The band’s biggest issue is that they come off as decidedly pretentious. Maybe
they’re not; maybe it’s just me. Still, even if I wasn’t a music critic, I have
to think that I’d still raise my eyebrows in uncertainty at a band who’d burden
songs with lofty titles like “(Oh My Dear It’s Just) Chemical Frustration” and
“120 Ways To Kill You: An Illustrated Children’s Book.” (This isn’t a new
problem for the group, as evidenced by songs from their debut entitled
“Instructions on Building a Model Airplane” and “The Short Weekend Begins with a
Longing.”) In addition, the vocals oftentimes sound a little too smug for their
own good, and, frankly, the material isn’t always strong enough to warrant such
haughtiness.
If Action Action can further expand their palate, as they successfully do on
about a third of this disc, they might actually be able to compete with the
Killers. For now, they haven’t made it up to most critics’ “recommended if you
like” list; they’re still in the area marked, “Skip the album and just download
these few tracks.”
~Will Harris
wharris@bullz-eye.com
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