SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: 12 RODS – IF WE STAYED ALIVE

12 Rods
If We Stayed Alive
Husky Pants Records

Yes, there is a sensible meaning in naming the new 12 Rods album If We Stayed Alive. It is the first in 21 years from these Minneapolis indies stalwarts, who always seemed to have a passion for that 80s indie/dream pop sound. No big change to that effect on this album either, and actually, there shouldn’t be.

What happened is that the band leader Ryan Olcott found the band’s unfinished demos. He found them quite good, so he sat down, completed, and re-recorded them for them to become the band’s new album.

What he came up with here is proof that when songs are good it makes no difference whether they originated 20 or so years ago or yesterday. And the seven tunes here are brimming with that ringing guitar sound and multi-layered vocals, where brushing up the arrangements and production just accentuated the fact that a good song remains a good song, no matter how much time passes by.

Artist Links