Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 27/02/06
Label: Kickball Records

Giant Drag have the commendable ability of making you excited before even a note of their debut album has been played. Its cover sees singer-guitarist Annie Hardy sat spread-legged against a wall, her face staring blankly into yours yet something is wrong. You look again and there it is - a knife sticks out of her right thigh with her own hand on the handle, while smeared across her face is a trail of blood. Presumably hers but you never know…

Giant Drag have making waves for some time back in their native L.A. on the back of some impressive EPs and the word of mouth filtering back to this side of the Atlantic has been enough to make the arrival of this album worth some anticipation. Opener "Kevin Is Gay" appears to confirm this, as sugar-sweet pop harmonies are propelled by the intoxicated buzzsaw guitars of partner and multi-instrumentalist Micah Calabrese, at once invoking the spirit of "Loveless"-era My Bloody Valentine and yet, like the cover, something is wrong.

Essentially, Giant Drag have evoked the post-"Nevermind" era of the early to mid-'90s of so-called alternative music and therein lays both their strength and their weakness. The dual spectres of the immeasurably cool riot grrrls Kim Gordon and Kim Deal make their presence felt throughout the rollicking fuzz of "This Isn't It" and it's not difficult to spot the influence of a pre-glammed PJ Harvey on the fantastically named "You F*ck Like My Dad". Likewise, "High Friends In Places" and "You're Full Of Sh*t" acknowledge the debt owed to the sadly departed Veruca Salt.

Thankfully, "Hearts & Unicorns" confirms that Giant Drag have learned enough from their mentors to bring things forward into the 21st Century. Unlike, say, Maximo Park - a band that's happy to wallow in someone else's memories without having the slightest clue about adding anything new to a form that's now decades old - Giant Drag are running full pelt with the baton they've inherited. So it is that the heavy-lidded languor of "Smashing" and its partner-in-crime "Cordial Invitation" not only recall but also make bold steps to define an era.

Giant Drag may well be a little too in thrall to their heroes but hey - what bands aren't? Crucially, not only has this duo a deep rooted love for the legacy that's been left behind, they've also an understanding of what made it work in the first place and it's precisely that attention to detail that makes them such an exciting proposition.

    by James Marshall