Les Savy Fav

Root for Ruin (Frenchkiss)

By Dana Raidt
Published: September 15th, 2010 | 1:00pm

With critical acclaim to spare, a reputation for “crazy” stage antics, and the hip Frenchkiss label as a pet project, Les Savy Fav seems overrated. For a long time, the eye-rolling cynic in me was convinced I hated them. Upon hearing 2007’s Let’s Stay Friends a few times, that changed. Suddenly I could hear there really was art behind the “art rock” label that always seemed to be thrown around with the band’s name. The angular, math-y rhythms weren’t just for show; they added a palpable urgency. The slower songs weren’t emo; they were bizarrely poignant. It was anything but what I’d originally written off as pretentious “dude rock.” If this were a John Hughes movie, Les Savy Fav would be the Judd Nelson to my Molly Ringwald, and I would have proposed by the time detention was over.

Root for Ruin, their fifth studio album, perfectly encapsulates everything the band did right on Let’s Stay Friends. The no-frills “Appetites” and “Dirty Knails” hit the ground running, and “Sleepless in Silverlake” and “High and Unhinged” are the post-punk equivalents of lullabyes—downtempo and simple, but engaging. What’s perhaps best of all about LSF is the fact that they know when to be cerebral and when to let loose, and that a healthy combination of the two is essential to making music that will endure. (More than one song on this record includes the word “tits.” Doesn’t get much more dude rock than that.)

Root for Ruin might take one or three or 15 listens to sink in, but give it some time and you’ll be handing over your earring to a greasy guy in a denim jacket and fingerless gloves like it’s no big deal.

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Les Savy Fav official Web site

Les Savy Fav MySpace page

Frenchkiss Records