By: David Schultz

On Let’s Talk About It, White Denim distilled everything that makes rock and roll vital and exciting down to its essence, resulting in a brilliant thirteen and a half minute EP. For Exposion, their first true full length album, the Austin wonder trio of James Petralli, Steve Terebecki and Joshua Block keep the music concentrated but allow it to breathe. A vibrant album, Exposion bristles with the manic energy White Denim brings to their live shows while revealing a trio that understands and transcends the conception of what makes up a song. Not just one of the best albums of 2008, Exposion should be the first of a long line of resoundingly brilliant releases.

Flouting convention, White Denim aren’t releasing Exposion in the traditional hand held CD format, choosing instead to release it almost exclusively in digital form with very little tangible product being made available to stores or e-tailers. Not quite the warning shot across the bow that Radiohead fired with In Rainbows but a definite sign that bands may be reclaiming the tools of production for themselves. The free-thinking involved in Exposion’s marketing and distribution is but a symptom of the expansive vision of White Denim’s music.

With Terebecki counterpunching on bass, Petralli runs a gauntlet of simple distorted riffs and layered melodic guitar work that moves on just at the moment it gets comfortable, engaging in his most pleasant guitar work on “Migration Wind” and the intro to “Don’t Talk About It.” For all its finesse, Exposion never strays far from its garage rock roots. Terebecki and Block masterfully build the tension on “Heart From Us All” and “Shake Shake Shake” is an earth-shaking three minutes of everything rock and roll should be. “Sitting,” the album’s closer, stews in its psychedelic cum art rock juices like the best of Television and the Talking Heads filtered through a Pet Sounds haze.

At its best, music doesn’t need words. It can be the primal scream that needs nothing more than an outlet for expression. Direct in his songwriting, Petralli sometimes doesn’t need anything more than a stray vowel or two to get his point across, the chorus of “IEIEIEIE” being nothing more than that. Many bands attempt to mask their musical deficiencies in excessively loud rhythmic bursts, emotive howls or jacked up guitar riffs. White Denim does all of the above but with the precision of microsurgeons, in full control of the wild concoctions they create; everything is right there on the record and this band has nothing to hide.

Labels: White Denim