Eat Skull - 'Jerusalem Mall' (Woodsist)

Coming off their great second album, I expected more from 'Jerusalem Mall', the song, which (if you're gonna command the A-side alone) should deliver more punch. Overall, this 7" feels like a bit of Eat Skull's different sides. My preference is for the fun, poppy stuff, represented here by the 7"s best track, 'Don't Leave Me on the Speaker'. Unlike 'Jerusalem Mall' this sounds bright, with the guitars working in a style that is melodically ramshackle instead of discordantly ramshackle. 'Thank you! Smokebreaks' is a fast punker along the 'Nuke Mecca' lines from Wild and Inside; fun, sure, but I think these work better on the longform player where there's a lot more meat in the sandwich. 

Cause Co-Motion - 'I Lie Awake' (Slumberland)

This is another blazingly short Cause Co-Motion 7", which just as much bounce, the same formula as the last one, and is really only distinguishable by having two b-sides. (So really, it's a bit longer than the first one). Of these bright and energetic pop songs, the third, 'Cry for Attention' has some nice reverb on the vocals. The tune proceeds at a mid-tempo rate, which distinguishes it slightly from the other four Cause Co-Motion songs i just listened to (in less than ten minutes) for the service of this blog. These are perfectly constructed artefacts, which pass by so quickly than I can't even really form an opinion. The vocals are an everyday/average Joe singer, sounding young and enthusiastic, and the guitars are scrappy yet confident. Is it supposed to be throwaway, disposable music? Is this music made in full acknowledgement of its predecessors and the inevitable retro-psychotic layers of bullshit that get thrown on top of anyone doing anything in late 00s New York hip culture? Or it this just a group of genuinely enthusiastic youngsters who know what they like, and know how to calibrate their own creations to reflect and commemorate said likes? You don't have to pick one or the other, that's the beauty of it all.