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(2014) PS I Love You - For Those Who Stay
Review:
PS I Love You's third album is scrappy and self-deprecating guitar rock that often finds Paul Saulnier freaking out about his inability to handle life’s uncertainties. This is an act which actually requires a great deal of resilience and self-belief; after all, this kind of music doesn’t find itself on the receiving end of a lot of outside validation in 2014. This circularity of struggling for struggle’s sake is even more pronounced in the title of For Those Who Stay; it can be read a show of confidence and gratitude to listeners who’ve stuck with this unfashionable, workmanlike band over the past eight years, as well as an acknowledgment that it’s hard to stick with an unfashionable, workmanlike band for eight years. At least there’s a level of comfort on both sides, though, and For Those Who Stay embodies the minor stakes and moderate goals of both performer and audience—it’s PS I Love You trying to be the biggest band for their little niche.
The title track is over six minutes long and about half of it is earmarked for a funk-grunge jam session; it arrives backed by a washed out remix courtesy of chillwave diehard Teen Daze. “For Those Who Stay” is also the first single, so this is clearly not a band who’s going out of their way to expand their reach. PS I Love You might not have a legitimate crossover, go-for-broke, all-singles album in them, but if they did, it would probably sound like this.
Compared to the murky, macabre Death Dreams, For Those Who Stay practically sparkles, as it was recorded in a “proper” studio and with a lot of what Saulnier calls “fancy gear”. Small indulgences creep in, as there’s often a third guy playing on any given song, contributing ARP string ensemble, piano, field recordings, Hammond B-3, stylophone, and other keyboards they proudly specify in the liner notes. The arrangements are incrementally more complex, though the stylistic range on For Those Who Stay is by far PS I Love You’s most expansive move yet—“In My Mind At Least” sneaks in mid-period Cure jangle before “Advice” lays back in the pocket with bloozy amble. “Bad Brain Day” and “Limestone Radio” show a surprising facility for both unencumbered acoustic balladry and QOTSA-style riffs slapped together with a New Wave chorus.
They all sound like little nudges at PS I Love You’s set boundaries, since the duo are still an indie rock band first and foremost. You know this sound by now: fuzzed-out guitars that simultaneously handle rhythm and lead, steady, unshowy drums, and a general sense of hang-doggedness that could be heard as reflex, a sadness borne of realizing you’re drawn to a style of music that prefers a downer disposition. The first line on For Those Who Stay is, “I’m sorry I forgot about that thing I was supposed to do last week,” an offhand remark that somehow spells out an album’s entire emotional state of creeping guilt and regret.
Saulnier’s voice somehow makes that line sound like an apology worthy of a cataclysmic, life-altering failure, as his adenoidal squawk (think Dan Bejar or Alec Ounsworth) the one thing that most distinguishes PS I Love You from their fuzz-duo peers. On the other hand, it’s the one thing that could trigger the kind of allergic reaction unattributable to their fuzz-duo peers who lack such idiosyncrasies good or bad.
But this divisiveness has already been established; For Those Who Stay won’t change your opinion either way, and at the most, it might make you feel more strongly about what you already believe. In turn, that seems to calcify opinion into hard truth—that PS I Love You are a band that’s pretty great at being pretty good, while lacking the sort of risk and extroversion that can trigger real passion. The songs are catchy but they don’t quite feel anthemic; they’re loud and distorted, but they probably couldn’t start a mosh pit. Yes, it’s a shame that another Canadian duo that got started around the same time does this kind of thing on a much, much higher level, but you stack a line like “We’re never gonna win/ Keep tryin’ is all you can do” or the shrugged resignment of “Hoarders” and “Friends Forever” against their Vancouver peers’ raw lust for living, and PS I Love You's modest place in the grand scheme of things just feels like an accurate reflection of their ambitions.
And really, the one thing that probably determines your excitement and enjoyment of For Those Who Stay is just how much you’ve invested in PS I Love You being one of your favorite bands. You get the weird sense that For Those Who Stay is at its best when you’re its captive audience and as Saulnier belts out a line like, “How much did it hurt to make it this far?/ I still believe in you all," you can at least root for PS I Love You, even if you don’t love them.
Review by Ian Cohen
Rate 6.2/10
Track List:
01. PS I Love You - In My Mind At Least (02:44)
02. PS I Love You - Advice (04:51)
03. PS I Love You - Bad Brain Day (02:57)
04. PS I Love You - Limestone Radio (02:53)
05. PS I Love You - For Those Who Stay (06:31)
06. PS I Love You - Afraid Of The Light (04:25)
07. PS I Love You - Friends Forever (03:31)
08. PS I Love You - More Of The Same (05:08)
09. PS I Love You - Hoarders (05:54)
Summary:
Country: Canada
Genre: indie rock, garage rock
Media Report:
Source : CD
Format : FLAC
Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : ~860-1000 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
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