While multifariousness can make great albums, not all multifarious albums are great. While the pursuit of adding a motley of influences could be an experiment with a bold and visionary intention, like many-an-experiment, this could very well lead to failure, which no matter how unintentional, should sometimes be out-and-out punishable.
When Nerves Junior takes a stab at multeity, the exercise doesn’t seem like an experiment but more like a spontaneous collage of great ideas. This band from Louisville, KY has a sound that jumps back and forth between folk and electronica, never settling in one mold or the other, but not seeming unsettled under its chameleon skin either. Although there is nothing new about Nerves Junior’s eccentric synth-infused indie-folk mishmash, its debut As Bright As Your Night Light is as perfect a recipe can get out of the cookbook of someone like Beck or Deerhunter.
Nerves Junior doesn’t treat their sometimes folksy and sometimes electronic music with as much of a kidglove that they get too self-consciousness. As a result, the music doesn’t seem too weighty, and somber ballads like “Downtown Lament” and “Get Left In The Dark” aren’t held captive to weltschmerz. Without taking themselves too seriously, Nerves Junior has the ability to create intensely haunting songs like “Champagne & Peaches” and “Luciferin,” where the band has a more Radiohead approach, mixing and distorting electronics and electric guitars in a psychedelic whirlpool.
As Bright As Your Night Light tries to achieve plenty within the space of its nine songs. But Nerves Junior doesn’t seem to be trying too hard, when they go beyond pensively fey tunes and dishes out their own perverse interpretation of dub and garage rock in the dauntlessly raucous “Swimmer’s Ear” and “Nails To Scratch With,” which add an element of surprise and jaggedness to this record. As Bright As Your Night Light has certainly more depth than the number of tracks it advertises on its tracklist.
