Uptown overdrive champs Guilty Giraffe shine on their newly released self titled LP, incorporating an aggressive smattering of varied guitar-driven subgenera over the course of ten immaculately-produced tracks. From the introductory “Babyface” the Yonkers quartet makes their love of effects pedals well-known, quickly pivoting from a shoegazing overture to dream-pop arpeggios; this dynamic blend of sounds dark and bright continues well-through album standouts like “Xanax” and “Washed Out,” wherein frontman Mathew McGinnis’s growling vox shifts between grungy, full-throated yells and plainspoken singspeak, a delightful performance that places him somewhere between Kevin Shields and Andrew WK. With acrobatic licks and a penchant for the occasional, experimental soundscape (“Cool as a Fan”), Guilty Giraffe shreds through and through — listen to our premiere stream of the record below, and catch the band at Berlin on March 1st.
