Electrelane

With 2004's The Power Out, Electrelane added vocals to the vintage organ and mildly distorted guitar work-outs of their debut, and instantly graduated from being a good idea for a band to an indie-rock ideal. The formula was simple: proggy retro-futurism mixed with angular girl-punk energy and twee-pop sweetness. The trick was the total democracy with which each component related to the others, a balance that was betrayed on 2005's largely instrumental—and alternately wayward and harsh—Axes.

Anyone hoping that No Shouts, No Calls would be a return to form will not be disappointed. It’s a touch more muscular and relentless than The Power Out, but Verity Sussman's vocals are back, and so are her bandmates' perfect wordless choruses. "The Greater Times" and "To the East" manage to be soulful and direct while wrapping themselves in a joyous haze. "Tram 21" contains the band's most surprising electronic textures yet, while "Between the Wolf and the Dog" builds tension for two-and-a-half minutes with a broody guitar attack, full-on drum assault, and deep space-rock keyboards until a cooed vocal melody straight out of Blondie's "Heart of Glass" comes out of nowhere and nearly melts it all away. Luckily, that's more the rule than the exception here—every track wants to be a pop song again.

- Nate Cunningham
04.27.07

Beginning with their breakthrough second effort, The Power Out, it feels like Electrelane has had a specific focus for each album. The Power Out itself added vocals to their sound, Axes concentrated on experiments in tension and release, and No Shouts No Calls delivers a set of urgent, romantic epics. This may not be their most dramatic album -- the women of Electrelane don't get around to their lock-groove rock until the seventh track, "Between the Wolf and the Dog" -- but its best songs are among the band's finest work. Tracks like "The Greater Times" and "To the East" are direct yet complex, with soaring melodies and lyrics like "I'm just waiting until you say these words/Come back, come back"; the contrast between intimate, almost too-personal words and the swelling sounds around them is exquisite. And while the album is dominated by intense, impatient joy of "At Sea," which rides glorious swells of keyboards and fuzzy guitars, its lightly heartbroken moments are just as lovely: "Saturday" boasts beautiful call-and-response vocals and lyrics that feel like a nursery rhyme about a breakup; "Cut and Run" pairs a lighthearted melody and ukulele with the painful realization that a relationship is likely over. No Shouts No Calls' instrumentals are just as strong as the tracks with vocals, and revel in the pure emotional power of sound. "Tram 21"'s mischievous organ and guitar interplay is jaunty and slightly trippy, while "Five" is the album's searing, insistent powerhouse. No Shouts No Calls might be some of Electrelane's most accessible work, but it's far from safe; in fact, its sweet vulnerability is exactly what makes it so special. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide