by
Trans Am
- Record Label: Thrill Jockey
- Release Date: Dec 8, 2009
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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More than a holding operation while Thomson tours with Ian F. Svenonius as two-man funk caravan Publicist, this is travelling music for swinging around asteroids or hurtling down a ravine.
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To the novice listener, it won’t make a whole lot of sense, fails to indicate any kind of coherence to their overall output, and is probably not the best place to get to grips with them (although where that would be is anyone’s guess). This, no doubt, is the whole point of Trans Am — to confuse and confound, to take inexplicable U-turns just to see what happens, to irritate and amuse at the same time, to lurch from incredibly catchy pop to attempting a critique of the war in Iraq in an instrumental format.
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While it's somewhat difficult to reconcile their whole career in one live disc, the material remains unpredictable even as it gets a little more cerebral. For those who had even a passing interest in Trans Am's music over the years, this set is a fine reminder of why you likely tuned into them in the first place.
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That the record spans their 15-year lifespan puts the kybosh on continuity a touch; see announcing your last song in the middle of an album. However, that’s generally overridden by sheer dumb fun within cuts like synth-drenched supermarket ode "Tesco V Sainsbury's".
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These numbers are soaked in a disorienting futurist nostalgia that epitomizes Trans Am’s ironic humor and their ability to transform leaden clichés into gold.
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Under The RadarTaken as a whole, the album sounds remarkably cohesive considering it spans so much time. [Holiday 2009, p.79]
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UncutWhat Day Is It Tonight?--culled from 15 years of recording since 1993--captures their tight ferocity in full force. [Feb 2010, p.104]