120 Days - 120 Days (Cover Artwork)
Staff Review

120 Days

120 Days (2006)

Vice


Well, they did it. They finally killed `80s throwback synth-pop.

By a show of hands, how many of you woke up this morning and really said to yourself, "I miss Duran Duran, but for some reason, I'd rather listen to a modern hipster version of said band. Can I get help, VICE?"

I bet none of you did. Regardess, bring on the Max Headroom and white sunglasses. And the ambient keyboards. And the vocoder. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

There are nine songs on this album, most of which aren't very good. And are too long. I have a theory, and this theory is that anything with a synthesizer by natural function must end in a four-minute time frame. That's like two full Ramones songs back to back. Yet again and again, 120 Days breaks the six-minute mark over and over again with uninteresting synthesizer programming. And then at the end of the album, they put a three-minute track of just synth crap. As if to hide it from us after we're tired of a three-minute synth intro to an eight-minute song. Those jerks. I think they're all Norwegian.

Xenophobia aside, I could listen to "Be Mine" a lot. It's got that nice `80s wannabe goth feel, like Depeche Mode or the Cure, but still has a nice upbeat rhythm and catchy melodies. "Come Out" feels like the intro song to a "Miami Vice"-type show, so nuts to the first song. "Sleepwalking" is a pretty hot jam. But every other song, well, to be honest, they sound the same. Same old 4/4 electronic-sounding beat with layers of guitars and synths all sounding like so much electronica. I suppose if I owned a neon pink leather jacket and snorted a lot of cocaine that this shit would be sweet.

If you want, I guess you could go order the album while trying to find the street date for the next issue of VICE Magazine, but you might be better off downloading this one illegally.