White Denim - Fits

White Denim Fits (Full Time Hobby)

Where am I and what  in God’s name is happening? These are the thoughts that swim wildly around your mind by the time Fits has reached its third song, ‘Say What You Want’. The song starts with a riff that’s dirtier than sewer rat on crack before a stomping drum beat catches up and pulsates the song forwards in some sort of crazed voodoo groove. That’s all well and good. But when the song breaks down into a sweet, bluesy arpeggio before giving way to a fidgety sitar pinnacle with the drums sounding like they’re collapsing around you, you start to wonder how the fuck is this so enjoyable?

This is typical of White Denim’s second album and with this wide eyed, almost freakish, sense of enjoyment, it’s also probably time to realise that attempting to analyse the chaos is pointless and just getting swept up in the beautiful racket is far more enjoyable.

Fits rockets through from start to finish in a seamless concoction of rattling drums, berzerk guitar riffs and possessed, rumbling bass. On the surface, White Denim might sound like a number of Southern American blues/garage rock bands- taking influence from all the main riff culprits from Led Zep to The Stooges- but really they’re so much more. Among the commotion that is Fits, some sort of spooky fusion between classic rock loving Texans and shroom taking, avant-garde intellectuals is revealed. Most of the album sounds like a crazed, ongoing jam session rife with experimentation and psychedelic mood swings ‘Sex Prayer’, for example, sounds like the result of some very trippy sleep outs in the desert, while the following song, ‘Mirrored and Reversed’ bubbles just below the surface with jazzy drums and eerie vocals before bursting out in a particularly delightful hit of demented guitar riffs.

For all the songs that sound like an old blues guitarist’s head exploding with drugs and new ideas (that’s a good thing to sound like, by the way), Fits features the occasional more conventional song to balance it out. ‘Regina Holding Hands’ is a soulful and powerful ditty which eventually breaks out into a glorious, shimmering chorus that sounds like the younger and less extravagant cousin of the Rolling Stones’ ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’.

Although White Denim’s debut album, Workout Holiday, may have been more instantly accessible, Fits is most definitely a great progression. Where the previous album often shapes itself the way you want it to- or the way you expect it to, Fits includes a great number of surprises along its tumbling, rocky path. With their latest album, White Denim have excelled themselves, creating a messy and chaotic whirlpool of different styles and instruments yet sprinkling beautiful melodies, inspirational choruses and soulful sections throughout. 

Mirrored And Reversed