AM/FM - Mutilate Us - Polyvinyl

Review by: Jennifer Perkins

I went into this AM/FM experience pretty blindly. I was not an old die hard Franklin fan, had never heard The Science of, and was not one of the many fans anxiously waiting for a follow up to Audiot. All I knew about AM/FM is what the press release that came with the CD said. Beyond the one sheet it was me and my musical interpreting devices left alone to make a decision about Polyvinyl’s latest stars AM/FM and their first full length release Mutilate Us.

First step, I just listened. The intro to the CD caught me off guard with it’s dueling la-la-la’s between falsetto and baritone competitors. I paused for a moment and thought “Oh Jesus, what am I in for, another arty self indulgent solo project?”. When the second song started, “Secretly Odds in Knowing Normal Worlds”, I knew everything was going to be OK, more than OK actually. Mutilate Us is saturated with intricate and interesting sounds making for an engaging glimpse into the pop mind of chief song writer Brian Sokel. Possibly due to the gaggle of guest appearances on this CD the stylistics of each tune would not sit still long enough for me to even make a decent comparison to another band. No two songs on this disc really sound alike. They all have different qualities that set them apart. There are doubled up vocals and fuzzed out guitars throughout, but overall this is an eclectic CD to say the least.

One continuing theme throughout the 13 tracks on this CD was that all these songs seemed so fluid in structure. Great pop songs a lot of times come across as crisp, rigid and sometimes even contrived, you can feel the length of time it took them to get that hook just right. On the flip side to all that structure AM/FM seem to have pop songs that at once seem well thought out, but at the same time organic and mutable. Apparently Mr. Sokel likes to take songs into the studio as more of a framework rather than fully completed and in an Abraham Maslow sort of way let them self actualize like an acorn to an Oak. Reference Japancakes on this “jam session theory”. However, unlike Japancakes AM/FM apparently know a thing or two about song structure and manage to find a melody that works for them.

A review for this band can not be written without mentioning that ya, ya this is the same Brian Sokel that was in Philadelphia’s Franklin for 8 years. Franklin by no means deserves downplaying, it just seems irrelevant when speaking of the AM/FM. If you are looking to your prior knowledge of Franklin as a reference point for what AM/FM might sound like, don’t. The only similarities here is that AM/FM is just as difficult to typecast as Franklin was. Apparently Brian started recording these songs onto a 4 track recorder towards the end of Franklin and by the time the band was through he had contacted his good friend Mike Parsell (formerly of The Science Of and Goodbye Blue Monday) and AM/FM was born. A cracker jack debut EP, a hook up with Polyvinyl, and a 6 month studio stint later we have Mutilate Us.

In my opinion Mutilate Us is not a real pop record in the true sense of the word. All at once being light and airy and fun there are still layers and layers of melodic sounds here. Pop bands don’t typically incorporate in glockenspiels, lap steels, mandolins and members of Ink and Dagger. Mutilate Us is much smarter and a lot more diverse than your average pop record, maybe even a little more mature. Its not like you need to be over 25 to appreciate AM/FM, they are for anyone and everyone, you just need good taste.

Read an interview with AM/FM here.

Read a review of the Polyvinyl Redirection sampler here.

Read a review of The AM/FM's Getting Into Sinking here.

Read where AM/FM got their name from here.

Read where Polyvinyl got their name from here.

See pictures of the AMFM here.