CD Review: No Devotion – “Permanence” (Collect)
Let’s face it – the guys from Lostprophets deserved a
better fate than disgraced former lead singer Ian Watkins gave them. Enter the
brilliant Geoff Rickly, formerly of seminal post-hardcore mavens Thursday. Once
you combine the two forces, you get No Devotion, whose stunning debut Permanence is swathed in a compendium of
heavily synth-addled dreamy alt-rock with just enough picturesque shoegaze,
making for gigantic orchestrations very reminiscent of The Cure (“Break,” “10,000
Summers,” “Stay”). Rickly flexes his atmospheric muscle as he reaches new vocal
heights on “Permanent Sunlight,” then rivals those lofty heights in “I Wanna Be
Your God” as his reverb-drenched voice screams ‘I want to be your God’ over and
over, and “Eyeshadow” is virtually flawless, a magnificent example of Permanence’s immersive experimentalism.
And for those clamoring for another Thursday album, Permanence could very well have been the logical progression from
the bands final album No Devolución. With
Permanence, No Devotion has something
truly special, and we are all lucky enough to bear witness.
Grade: A
Go Download: “Eyeshadow”
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