No Age

This year we have seen many artists take material from several previously released albums to make full-lengths that have been much better than what the outcome usually is in this situation. Panda Bear's Person Pitch might be one of the more popular cases of this. No Age's Weirdo Rippers is certainly looking to try and dethrone Panda Bear of that title though.

Consisting of nothing but a drummer who sings and a guitarist who previously made their mark in the band Wives, No Age have released five EPs and took tracks from each of those to create their Fat Cat debut Weirdo Rippers. If you were familiar with Wives then you might know what to expect. If not, then you are in for a pleasant surprise for sure.

Romping and stomping through eleven tracks filled with contrasting blissful noise and absolute rocking moments, No Age manage to mix what sounds like a band who grew up listening to Sam Cooke's "Having a Party" while riding around in their mother's cars as children on a bad eight-track player and managed to mix that with the punk stylings of the 80’s which their cool uncles introduced them to before finally hearing My Bloody Valentine in high school. What you have there is an absolute recipe for success in my book.

The album does suffer some continuity problems in that you can tell that it has been culled from several releases. "I Wanna Sleep," albeit a good track, does seem to be in a strange place on the disc. This is pretty quickly forgotten though by the time the follow-up track "My Life's Alright Without You" is over. There isn't much better than a song telling your former significant other that you’re way better off now.

Other standout tracks are "Boy Void," and "Everybody's Down," which are both absolute scorchers. "Neck Escaper" is a shorter song that starts off with noodling guitars before rocking out in a mid-tempo stomp out.

Outside of some very tiny missteps, this album is seriously my Summer Jam 2K7. Since getting the album I have ordered a t-shirt and tote bag filled with all five of their records this album consists of. It's been awhile since a new band has come out of nowhere to make me a fan like this, but color me excited.

8.6 / 10 — Shane