Solids
Blame Confusion
Release Date: Feb 18, 2014
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Rock, Lo-Fi, Noise Pop, Noise-Rock
Record label: Fat Possum
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Album Review: Blame Confusion by Solids
Very Good, Based on 7 Critics
Based on rating 4/5
A Canadian duo that make quite a bit of noise, using quite a bit of fuzz and quite a bit of sweat. Sound familiar?After the ascendancy of Japandroids back in 2009 (or post-‘Post-Nothing’, if you will) just about every all-male duo making anything more than a slither of grungy noise couldn’t find them anywhere more than half a sentence away from the Vancouver pair. Most of these comparisons were unjustified.
Based on rating 8/10
Hackneyed as it may be to mention, the Montreal duo Solids did an excellent job choosing a name. While listening to Blame Confusion, it's hard to imagine that an album this densely packed with sound is the handiwork of just two people, but guitarist Xavier Germain-Poitras and drummer Louis Guillemette fill every possible nook and cranny on their debut album with heavy yet melodic music. Like plenty of other indie rock bands in the 2010s, Solids take inspiration from alt-rock's early-'90s heyday, and it's easy to hear bits of Sonic Youth, Superchunk, and Dinosaur Jr.
Based on rating 80%%
On their debut, Montreal duo Solids come out swinging and never let up. Back to front, Blame Confusion consists of balls-to-the-wall bangers. When the pace slows down, it isn’t by much.To occasionally offset the breakneck speed, a heavy dose of distortion and feedback complements their single-hook formula, filling the space behind each basic three-chord structure.
Based on rating 7.5/10
Formed by Xavier Germain-Poitras (guitar) and Louis Guillemette (drums), the lo-fi rock duo that is Montreal’s Solids don’t hide their 90s proto-grunge influences. They also understand, as Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, early Silver Jews and the mirage of predecessors to their sound did, that sometimes a melody is sweeter when it has to fight to have its say – and sometimes it really does have to fight hard (really hard – like a Balboa punching pork montage hard). But if you’re willing to put your ears to the test, Blame Confusion never fails to reward.
Based on rating 6/10
Singer-guitarist Xavier Germain Poitras and drummer Louis Guillemette like their rock loud, fast and fuzzy, or at least that's the impression they give on their full-length debut as Solids. Not unlike their West Coast counterparts Japandroids, the Montreal guitar and drums duo craft punchy tunes out of a distortion-heavy wall of sound, mining the likes of Superchunk and Hüsker Dü in the process. Of course, it's not the sound you stole that matters, but what you do with it.
Based on rating 5.8/10
Montreal's Solids operate at one of two speeds: pretty fast, and stupid fast. The young duo's debut LP, Blame Confusion, is a gaussian blur, 37 minutes of speed limit violation, drawing equally on hardcore blister, dream-punk, and raucous cusp-of-the-1990s indie rock. But while Solids don't want for momentum, between their relentless propulsion and the billowing reverb that envelops much of Blame Confusion, they can sometimes lose the song amidst the static.
Based on rating 5/10
Solids are a Montreal based two-piece consisting of drummer Louis Guillemette and guitarist Xavier Germain-Poitras, who also provides vocals. What sets them apart (somewhat) from the two-piece guitar/drums pack of White Stripes, Black Keys, Little Hurricane, Viva Voce, Black Pistol Fire, Pretty Lightning—whew! That list is getting long—et al. is that their attack comes from a more punk angle than a blues-rock one.
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