Les Savy Fav - "Let's Stay Friends"

Les Savy Fav - Patty Lee (Frenchkiss 2007)

Les Savy Fav - Let's Stay Friends / Frenchkiss

Guitars. Yes, guitars. A good guitar band is hard to find, right? Especially one that's been around for ages. Les Savy Fav know. They've been around since forming at RISD in '95. If that feels like the Bronze Age, think about how long it's been since we last saw actual new material from these guys (proverbially, natch). Go Forth? I mean, people were still thinking New York was the next big thing in those days. Remember when everyone was comparing bands to Les Savy Fav a few years ago? Now people are comparing Les Savy Fav to bands that have been formed in the interim. If that doesn't say it all, The Bravery have had an entire career arc in the time it's taken Les Savy Fav to put out something more than a comp with "The Sweat Descends" on it.

So what is it about Les Savy Fav that has given them the staying power to keep themselves in the media mix? Part of it can be attributed to Inches doing so well and the fact that Pitchfork loves them and the fact that Tim Harrington is a maniac and the fact that their live shows are still unparalleled and the fact that Frenchkiss is still a reliable label after all these years. But maybe it's time to confirm what their fans have been proffering for years: That Les Savy Fav are simply a band built on a foundation of deceptively good rock songs. If Inches wasn't enough for you (like it and the 3/5 reissue last year weren't for me), then let me say that the tides have finally, finally turned. Let's Stay Friends? Deadly, squire.

For a long time it was suspected this band was just a joke, albeit an elaborate and intimately scene-devoted one. But the quality of the music here is better than they've ever produced. The pre-Let's Stay Friends Les Savy Fav was unhinged, chaotic and occasionally melodic; erratic but brilliant; sometimes deadly, sometimes dudly. I never felt that was the case with this record. Strong across the board (and they even have the ballad "Comes & Goes," one of the most affecting tunes out this year), this album deserves to be on some year-end best-of lists when all is said and done.

And it's not just the restraint that Harrington is showing with his vocals. He can be crazy on the mic, loud and aggressive (as on "The Equestrian"). We always knew he was a sharp lyricist, and he's no duller for having stayed in the drawer for so long. But the quality and quantity of his vocal work, that's just as much the revelation as Seth Jabour's guitartistry. The exercised breathers you get in tracks like "Scotchguard the Credit Card" are spectacular. I mean, even here on "Patty Lee," you see what I mean? He's not dumping sweat all over the kids on record, which can only mean that when they play it live the kids are all the more surprised.

It's a measured recording, more melodic and to-the-point than ever before. It is, to be more blunt, Les Savy Fav's own The New Romance. Phil Ek didn't man the boards on this album - Chris Zane did - but that ringing guitar sound will no doubt remind you of "All Medicated Geniuses" or "This is Our Emergency." Maybe this is the album Pretty Girls Make Graves would've made had Nathan Thelen not quit and everything gone to hell thereafter. The difference comes with some outside assistance: Eleanor Friedberger sings a duet with Harrington. Unicorns alumnus and current Islands member Nicholas Thorburn helps sing. Enon is in the mix somewhere. Fred Armisen (Saturday Night Live?) plays drums on "Pots & Pans" and "Patty Lee." Metric's Emily Haines plays piano. Modest Mouse/Black Heart Procession guy Joe Plummer drums. There's a lot going on here, as you can see.

But that's not a bad thing. In fact, it helps Les Savy Fav sound more complete, more fluid, more mature than ever before. Horns on "The Lowest Bitter." I know indie-rock types can be suckers for horns, but hearing it give this album just a touch of color at the last gasp is a masterstroke and one that duly deserves recognition. It's exactly the masterstroke that exemplifies the whole reason this band made this record: They were unwilling to give up.

"It's a resolution to defy the forces which wear away at our innocence and enthusiasm." There's no doubt that the innocence and enthusiasm of the group that first got them noticed with Rome (Written Upside Down) is still there. But it's tempered by the underlying factor that drives the very forces they seek to defy: age. Les Savy Fav are one of the smartest bands in music, and with Let's Stay Friends they've married the consistent with the inconsistent to produce their most fully realized release yet. Descending sweat never felt better.