Longwave returns from their hiatus with the grand and emotional, if flawed, Secrets Are Sinister. The New York group turned a lot of heads earlier this decade as part of the new alt-rock explosion out of the Lower East Side, eventually signing to major label RCA and opening for the likes of The Strokes and The Vines. But after touring to support 2005’s There’s A Fire, Longwave largely disappeared. But now the band has come back with the washing guitars and emotions of Secrets Are Sinister.
In some ways more akin to major label debut The Strangest Things than to it’s follow-up, Fire, Secrets employs a mixture of neo-New Wave and grand Brit-rock expanse that’s more massive than anything the band has done before. The ultra-grand “Sirens in the Deep Sea” starts it off as an eye-opening opener, but there’s more of a New Wave press to the high, expansive drive on “No Direction”. Secrets largely stays in the higher arena of things (save the bass-heavy, and slightly grinding, “Eyes Like Headlights”), though sometimes the grand wash of pieces like “Life Is Wrong” or the eponymous finisher is replaced by softer strums, like on the relaxed “The Devil and the Liar” (which is somewhat reminiscent of Ambulance LTD’s – QRO live review – excellent “Yoga Means Union”, albeit with lyrics). Back-to-back, “It’s True” and “Shining Hours” both employ both styles, growing from soft into grand (though perhaps too much on “Hours”). And “I Don’t Care” introduces some disco-dance effects (almost like We Are Scientists – QRO album review) for a high discotronic haunt.
Certainly ambitious, Longwave do reach somewhat too far on Secrets, letting their emotions get the better of them. Sometimes it is just over-affected vocals, like on the title track, but it’s often real over-emoting, too expressive. Pieces such as “Satellites” and “Life Is Wrong” feel like those eighties power alt-rock anthems, demanding in their feelings – U2 without the experience. While that keeps Secrets Are Sinister from being the epic it clearly wants to be, Longwave are still able to make it high.
