Lithics

• Borrowed Floors [Water Wing, 2016] *
• Tower of Age [Trouble in Mind, 2020] A-

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Borrowed Floors [Water Wing, 2016]
Portlandia Delta 5 fans are coy about who's on guitar, probably because they're afraid he's the star, and yes I'll bet money it's a he ("Labor," "Seven People") *

Tower of Age [Trouble in Mind, 2020]
Jumpy and catchy, playful whether they like it or not, this Portland foursome's third and best album is as far from 2018's Mating Surfaces as Mating Surfaces is from 2016's Borrowed Floors. The template holds: staccato guitar patterns or outbursts as opposed to lines over drum and bass considerably less "danceable" than that of their U.K. counterparts Shopping, who double their trouble by trying to say something about . . . consumerism??? No passes at meaningful verbiage here: from "Hello hello are you there" kicking things off to whatever if anything Aubrey Horner grunts over the last third of "Half Dormancy," the scant lyrics are not funny ha ha but funny tongue-in-cheek, which may very well be how they're enunciated. A-