In 2008, Suburban Sprawl Records reissued the Javelins' first full album, 2005's No Plants Just Animals, with the five tracks from the band's 2004 debut EP added for good measure. This probably wasn't the intention, but it's quite surprising how outdated these 14 tracks sound a mere three years later. Originally recorded during the height of the new wave revival, when any band to whom the buzzwords "jittery" and/or "angular" could be applied, they were assured of at least a certain amount of online buzz, but No Plants Just Animals is a thin, scratchy record that doesn't turn those attributes into strengths the way a smarter and more melodically advanced band might have. After a brief but enticing opener, "This Evening's Course," that teases the listener with a mixture of half-chanted vocals, a dirty, squelchy bass drum blurt, and a heavily processed instrumental line that sounds like an electrified kalimba and promises a playful and sonically adventurous listen ahead, things become much more conventional right quick. The rest of the album consists of entirely average mid-2000s indie rock songs, with a rhythm section (including singing drummer Matt Rickle) that favors third-hand semi-reggae (via the Police) grooves and a guitarist, Matt Howard, whose entire repertoire consists of tightly constricted, high-register riffs that sound so similar from song to song that it's like he didn't change his amp or pedal settings once through the entire recording process. Similarly, Rickle's use of Strokes-style distancing effects on his weedy, detached vocals gets quite old before the album is even halfway finished. Three years is shockingly short for an album to sound so much like a time capsule, but No Plants Just Animals is little more than a collection of then-fashionable hipster clichés, so it's perhaps not entirely surprising.
© Stewart Mason /TiVo