Revolt Against Tired Noises

If drugs are supposed to numb you, they don’t seem to be doing the job on Stratford 4 frontman Chris Streng. There’s no question that illicit chemicals played a part in the construction of the gorgeous, atmospheric wall of sound at the core of the band’s debut, Revolt Against Tired Noises, but the hallucinogenic pop haze doesn’t buffer Streng from his emotional demons. Echoes of spaced-out, guitar-crazy shoegazers like My Bloody Valentine and Spiritualized reverberate loudly through Revolt, as it tells tales of love, infatuation, and relationships going sour. Streng builds “All The Fading Stars” on infidelity and an intoxicating melody, slowly working his way toward the killer line, “She’s on her back on her bed/And says, ‘Tell me about your girlfriend.’” “Displacer” is a towering mountain of majestic, arena-rock riffs and romantic regret, while the swaying “Autopilot” employs the gentle harmony vocals of drummer Andrea Caturegli to drive home the same sentiments a little more delicately. Well-paced and without a dud among its eight cuts, Revolt clearly wins its battle against tired noises.