Meatlockerfannoise

Review by Darren Kerr

This is one album that cannot be listened to as background music. You cannot house clean to it or achieve connubial bliss during its playing. Another thing you must not do is compare it to Pavement or the Geraldine Fibbers. The Emptys sound nothing like the lo-fi pseudo geniuses from Stockton, California, and the Toronto writer who said they are reminiscent of the Geraldine Fibbers is most certainly ingesting hallucinogenics by the trough-load.

The Emptys are makers of country-fied pop with vocals so fragile you think they'll break if you turn the stereo up too loud. From the opening lonely notes which become "Waterline" to the closer, "Waterlined," this is an album which playfully pokes you then smiles and kicks you square in the balls.

Meatlockerfannoise (so named because they jammed in a meat locker) is divided into two parts: the lighter songs and the deeper, darker songs like "Disparate Times." The production's kinda thin but, hey, this is lo-fi, and you may not like it right away. Leave it alone and it'll grow on ya.