Forged Artifacts Records, 4 September, 2020
Total Revenge sounds like a cool radio station being beamed in with pretty bad reception.
L.A.’s Total Revenge is the brainchild of Ryan Pollie (who also released a record under that name previously). He writes pretty simple and lilting songs that are wrapped in a warm blanket of echo, reverb, and nostalgia. Nothing sounds clean, nothing sounds quite right, but it ends up sort of sounding like my imagined childhood.
Total Revenge is a timeless nostalgia trip on a lot of levels. Songs like “The Lawn” sound like they could’ve been recorded to tape from a not-so-crystal-clear AM radio station in the 70’s. The lead guitar on “The Lawn” is a real earworm cutting through some warm and hazy atmosphere and the gorgeously reverbed vocals hit the sweet spot. Even better is my favorite song on the record, “The Fair”. The song is gorgeous and sweet, feeling a bit like a song soundtracking a particularly obscured dream, as Pollie gently asks “will you meet me at the fair”. It’s weirdly alluring.
Other songs kick up a bit more dust, but Total Revenge never moves quicker than a trot. “Surgery” starts with a sweetly strummed acoustic guitar and some distant vocals before noisy percussive sounds break through and cascading melodies that almost sound like they’re coming from Peter Frampton’s talk box take hold. “Smog” works with stomping percussion that sounds made with a cardboard box (kind of endearing to me) and a simple up and down two-strum guitar riff. And another favorite, “Jeep Cherokee”, sports the best-sounding drums on the record and some wonderful guitar lead. The vocal melody is another in a line of descending patterns with Pollie sounding a little more put-out and desperate while singing lines like “I’d cry if I only knew how” and “there’s nothing on earth left for me”. It’s regretfully heartbreaking and melancholic and beautiful all at once.
Total Revenge is a pretty, subtle, and endearing record. The gorgeous vocals will keep you humming along while some of the guitars and trashcan percussion parts will keep you nodding your head. And for those looking for a bit of nostalgia, this record will do the trick. Not bad at all.
Favorite song: “The Fair”
Favorite moment: when the noisy percussion comes in caterwauling over “Surgery”
Favorite whatever else: favorite feeling is the vibe that this record was recorded onto a cassette off a really cool 70’s power pop radio station that came in with pretty crummy fidelity
ryan is a reviewer and news editor for TGEFM. He’s very secretive, he might be an alien.
