Music Review: Death From Above 1979, The Physical World

By Less Lee Moore

I can’t sell you if no one buys.
Point out your heroes, click and they die.
—Death From Above 1979, “The Physical World”

Death From Above formed and later added the 1979 (under a bit of duress, mind you). The duo released some EPs and an album. Then they broke up for a decade and during that time, didn’t speak to each other for five years. Eventually, they started emailing each other again and took steps towards reforming. They toured for a couple of years, including a set at Coachella in 2011. Now they are back with a second album of new material and as much as it pains me to say this, I like it better than everything else they’ve ever done.

Although. . . I said that about Sebastien Grainger’s 2009 release with his band The Mountains. So when I heard that Grainger and fellow DFA 1979 member Jesse F. Keeler were gettin’ the band back together, I was selfishly annoyed, even though Grainger’s more recent solo album was a bit of a bust and I never warmed to Keeler’s solo projects. My first thought was, “It must be for the money.” But that was a narrow-minded and frankly, naïve, thought. Because let’s face it: though they may be hometown heroes to people from Toronto (and Mississauga), they’re not Black Sabbath or Queen. It’s great to have this punk rock idealism and all, but people need to eat, and if playing Coachella and going on tour and recording a new album means that Grainger and Keeler can keep making music instead of, I dunno, working in an office somewhere “consulting,” then hell yes, I support them.

So yeah, dudes, make some money. Make a shit ton of money from this album, because it’s exceptional.

The questions everyone is asking: What does The Physical World sound like? Is it a crap rehash of the band’s former glories? Put your fears to rest. It sounds like DFA 1979 but better, as if the band was stealthily improving during those ten years of inactivity. It’s got what you’d expect from these two: dance, music, sex, romance. And death. And a little blood.

But it’s bigger and louder and faster and deeper than before, with Grainger stretching his vocal chords in ways that used to be buried under a lot of feedback, but are now allowed to writhe and ooze through the speakers in all their emotive, fleshly wonder. There are hooks and bridges and breakdowns everywhere and Keeler works his bass like a beast, throwing real deal blues riffs around like slabs of meat. Maybe The Physical World wasn’t recorded in the alley outside of a strip club, but it’s no less raunchy than anything they’ve done before. It hits in the heart, the groin, and the brain. “She uses her body/to say the things that she can’t say” in “Cheap Talk,” a celebration of getting it on, in the bed or the backseat, whatever’s available.

There are a lot of point of view songs here, but whose? Don’t fall into the unimaginative critic’s Lana Del Rey trap of assuming everything is autobiographical. Even though “Trainwreck 1979,” the album’s yearning yet deadly first single, has its roots in something that actually happened, that’s just a jumping off point for the kind of obsessive narratives the band has trafficked in before, and a bridge so sharp it will cut you if you get too close.

The sardonic “Virgins” is a nasty chunk of what DFA 1979 does so well, evoking images of all the over-the-top high school parties we remember from every teen sex dramedy of the last 30 years, but more believable. When Grainger asks the listener to meet him at the cemetery gates in “Right On, Frankenstein!” he’s not name-dropping dead English poets, but conjuring the undead as a metaphor for disaffection. Speaking of the (un)dead, a line like “If we brought Kurt back to life/there’s no way he would survive,” comes across as almost emo on paper, but in the context of the social media-saturated world of “Always On,” you know it’s true.

“Crystal Ball” and “White Is Red” are the poppiest, easiest to love songs this band has yet crafted, with the former possessing a slick, smooth chorus and the latter almost veering into ballad territory, spinning a yarn as heartbreakingly clichéd as it is ambiguous, the kind that hasn’t been found outside the country music charts since Headbanger’s Ball was still on MTV, but that still dwells quietly inside the dusty pages of Paula Danziger and S.E. Hinton novels.

In case you thought The Physical World was all young adult angst, there are more mature (but still not grown-up) emotional politics in “Nothin’ Left” and “Gemini,” both displaying the kind of self-critical honesty that wounds. The speed-punk of “Government Trash” is made harder by searing, soaring, screaming vocals and pissed-off politics. The title track is last, filled with all the rumbling pressure of an imminent volcanic explosion that’s relieved only somewhat by a goddamned emotive guitar solo.

It’s not over yet, is it? Fuck me, it is. Don’t wait ten more years, guys. Please.

The Physical World was released on September 9 by Last Gang Records/Warner Bros. Records.

Tour Dates:
11/01: New Orleans, LA: Voodoo Music + Arts Experience
11/03: Atlanta, GA: Buckhead Theatre
11/04: Nashville, TN: Marathon Music Works
11/06: Houston, TX: Warehouse Live
11/07: Austin, TX: Fun Fun Fun
11/08: Dallas, TX: Granada Theater
11/10: Tempe, AZ: Marquee Theatre
11/12: San Diego, CA: House of Blues
11/13: Santa Ana, CA: Observatory
11/15: Las Vegas, NV: Brooklyn Bowl
11/17: San Francisco, CA: The Independent
11/18: Portland, OR: Crystal Ballroom
11/19: Seattle, WA: Neumos
11/21: Salt Lake City, UT: In The Venue
11/22: Boulder, CO: Fox Theatre
11/24: Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
11/25: Chicago, IL: Riviera Theatre
11/26: Detroit, MI: Crofoot
11/28: New York, NY: Terminal 5
1129: Philadelphia, PA: Union Transfer
12/01: Washington, DC: 9:30 Club
12/02: Boston, MA: House of Blues