Polvo – Today's Active Lifestyles

One of the best albums of the '90s. This is right up there with Loveless, Slanted and Enchanted, and Soundtracks for the Blind as a piece of work which perfected the sound of it's creator. How this album differs from those is that Polvo had no greater influence on bands that followed. No blind imitators. Nor ravenous fandom. What they had instead was some of the most unusually metered guitar rock to ever be recorded (Slint not withstanding.) Highly recommended for any fans of noisy guitar rock, spacious composition, and appreciators of unusual time signatures.

Great album. I'd dare say their best work in terms of a consistent experience. The one song I can totally do without is "Time Isn't On My Side"... it really annoys me very quickly; but everything else on this album is great.

Worth the crazy vinyl prices just to experience "Stinger (Five Wigs)"; which might be their best song in my opinion.

Tilebreaker has a great music video as well and Action Vs. Vibe and leading in to Gemini Cusp is a great end to the end album as well.

Overall, excellent 90s indie rock. I'd call it math rock, but they reject the term but it does have unique and odd tuning and some fancy fretwork.

Exploded Drawing is another great album, but it's peppered with more experimental tracks that I applaud them wanting to try new things but ultimately most of those songs tend to be forgettable to me.

Cor-crane creeps in a close second for me; but only for about the first half of the album. I get fatigued with it about halfway into that LP.

Contains "Lazy Comet", a song handed out to the green-clouded fans of The Residents, Thinking Fellers Union and the daily complexities of trying to fit into a non-existent mould. This record isn't sick with idleness and avoids the dolce far niente of some puttering math rock. An essential dose of weird-rock!

-Acidtabloid-