IV Thieves – If We Can’t Escape My Pretty
IV Thieves previously called themselves Nick Armstrong & the Thieves. Under the old name, they perfected a retro-groovy rock ‘n’ roll vibe, the finest example of which, “Down Home Girl”, showed up in a recent Honda truck ad — the one where the silver naked lady abandons her mudflap for a ride with Yosemite Sam. The record was better than the ad. Much better.
Under the new name — acknowledging that all four members are now writing songs and singing — they’ve overhauled the sound. For all practical purposes, this is a new band, one that has traded in its post-Beatles and British Invasion influences for sonics that are definitely post-Guyville and post-grunge. On the up side, this means If We Can’t Escape Pretty has an enormous layered guitar sound and thunderous drums; on the down side, it means the band doesn’t swing nearly as much as it used to.
Change doesn’t automatically equal growth, and a couple tracks here are disappointingly generic. No more generic than the Thieves’ ’60s-influenced work on last year’s The Greatest White Liar, but that disc was generic within a genre that had mostly been abandoned. Here in the 21st century, how many new bands do we need that sound like Oasis (with whom the Thieves have toured) or Arctic Monkeys?
That noted, I like IV Thieves better than either of those bands. If We Can’t Escape is a just a big old glorious and unabashed guitar-rock pop record, the kind Brits frequently pull off but for some reason we Yanks usually botch. This is the album Marah was trying to make on Float Away With The Friday Night Gods.