Gentle Friendy
Ride Slow
Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
Label: Upset the Rhythm
After a stint playing in multiple bands, duo Dave Maurice and Daniel Boyle teamed up and refined their musical personalities into the sweet sugarplum that is Gentle Friendly. While the production on Ride Slow is more constrained than most shoegaze bands, the duo’s style recalls a quirky, hard-hitting and entropic version of bands like the Jesus and Mary Chain and Depeche Mode. Maurice’s boyish, manic ramblings complement the fairytale songwriting and distorted synthesizer crust. The result is a band that has found their sound, but still has yet to effectively harness it.
It would be difficult to categorize Ride Slow as a pop album. It bears almost as many instrumental avant garde tracks as it does songs – most of which are hardly traditional – and barely a handful of which are suitable and accessible even for indie satellite radio. This is Gentle Friendly’s strength as well as weakness. “Slengteng” makes a great album song, but the average radio listener may feel alienated by its lack of trajectory and Boyle’s relentless, catapulting drumbeat. Several other experimental ditties, often lasting less than 90 seconds, lurk in between Ride Slow’s highlight tunes. Near the end of the album’s 35 minutes, they become downright intrusive.
Those insatiable listeners who can dig deep into the band’s sound will be very rewarded. “Lovers Rock” is a beautiful nursery rhyme for the indie generation and “Rip Static,” “Shrines and Shit” and “Vincent T” will surely find a home on many playlists. These tracks represent Gentle Friendly on their home turf. “No 808 On” lies in the same vein, but is a perfect example of the band trying to outdo itself; dragging on twice as long as any other track, it bogs down the final act of Ride Slow.
Gentle Friendly have a unique sound that makes Ride Slow completely tolerable as a play-through album. Upon repeated listens, it becomes easier and easier to skip through the unnecessary synth-fluff to the album’s meat and bones. Hopefully Maurice and Boyle will recognize their strengths and weaknesses and focus on songwriting in lieu of experimentation next time.
by Jory Spadea
