Chain Gang of 1974's Wayward Fire

The Chain Gang of 1974 are not a group of dirty prisoners who happen to play music. Instead, this group of musicians happens to tap into something far more futuristic than retro and end up sounding something like the 2011 version of Miike Snow. Fusing electro, indie, rock, post-shoegazing, and a healthy dose of the 80's Chain Gang's album, Wayward Fire ends up sounding something like an Echo & The Bunnymen album on acid.

Wayward Fire is an electronic album with much more than just electronics involved. With lots of huge grooves to latch on to, the poppier side of things propels you to some sort of legal high that hasn't been discovered yet. The songs are absolutely massive and all over the place in the best possible sense. Klanging noises give way to sugary sweet guitar work, shimmery synths sidle next to sighed vocals and songs linger long after they've faded away leaving you yearning for more. This is an album that's lost in the 80's with an armload of modern technology to guide it out hesitantly.

Fantastic through and through Wayward Fire ebbs and flows, builds up and calms down, and goes in and out like the tide. This is an album packed with ethereal songs, overwrought emotions, and choruses that won't soon be forgotten. The Chain Gang of 1974 has come up with something stellar here. This is a massive album that never skips a beat. Every song, every chorus, every aspect of this record is just about perfect which makes it easy to say, this is one of my favorites this year.

The Chain Gang of 1974

The name, The Chain Gang of 1974, might conjure images of sweaty prisoners working on rail in the middle of the desert but the band who share this namesake are so far away from that image it will make you wonder why they even called themselves that. That being said, this heavily 80's influenced band has taken the path of bands like Echo and the Bunnymen and created a name that's so far out it's just awkwardly cool. Musically, it's no different as their album, Wayward Fire, is a never-ending tribute to new romanticism, 80's vibes, post punk angularity and synth pop seduction.

With odd beats, lush synths, and hooks so large they could hook a continent there's nothing about Wayward Fire that's bad. This is a richly produced synth pop record whose energy and lyricism is infectious. Pieced together by one man wunderkind Kamtin Mohager, he attacks this album with a sense of dark urgency that provides the whole thing with never ending motivation. Wayward Fire is an album that clearly wants to move and it will stop at nothing to do so. And why should it when you sound like the best combination of the Scissor Sisters, The Rapture, and Tears for Fears to ever walk the earth?

Aggressively good, ridiculously catchy, and produced with more glossy sheen than legally allowed, this is a record that could make people with two left feet dance like a choreographer. This is urgent pop music that's far from wayward but it's likely to catch fire. Easily one of my favorite albums of 2011.