Savages’ smart reorganization and shuffling of punk, post-punk, krautrock, and noise music into something brutal, jarringly confrontational, and completely singular is a breath of fresh air and an unignorable statement of power and resistance.
Silence Yourself is a collection of no-nonsense, 0% fat post-punk. It’s embellished with snarling yowls of rage, steamroller percussion and despondent guitars, but there’s nothing that seems indulgent or ‘tacked-on’.
Silence Yourself may not invent a genre. Silence Yourself may not give you something you didn’t have already. But it is so stark, so bold and delivered with such utter belief that you wonder why anyone would possibly care.
It's one of rock’s most commanding and ferociously poised debuts in recent years, the work of a band whose outsized confidence and sharp clarity of vision doesn’t correlate with the short amount of time it’s been together.
Silence Yourself evokes very real sensory and emotional connections, leaving it up to you to get something out of it.
Since Savages have cultivated such a politicized aesthetic, it’s hard to divorce the concept behind the art from the art itself, but Silence Yourself delivers if you are willing to submit to its unflinching authority.
London-based four-piece gave us a manifesto that should have sounded laughably pretentious but comes off with exciting credibility in the context of their sound: a cold and tensely controlled fury.
If Savages gave us an all-out assault for the full 40 minutes of Silence Yourself, it would probably be emotionally overwhelming. Fortunately, their sonic texture is more balanced than that.
Every cymbal crash, feedback screech and bass rhythm is carefully composed into a swaggering, squalling style that’s utterly distinct.
What's striking is how easily Savages slip the moorings of their influences and come up with something fresh.
Savages are less hype act, more genuine article, treating the very model of the rock band with reverence and seriousness.
Everything else about Silence Yourself seems to be carefully constructed.
Their quakesome basslines, archly sculpted guitarwork and squall of yelps and howls from Beth make for an album rich in spiky, fiercely passionate moments to savour.
Amply weighted for a debut, Silence Yourself comprises a balance of really excellent stuff and the simply very good.
That this is Savages’ debut record seems astonishing. It’s an album which demands you listen, an album about experiences, when the familiar becomes alien, when things slip away. And, most importantly, this album is about taking control back.
With one foot in the here-and-now and the next already stepping into the future on Silence Yourself, Savages are not only making the statement that they are here, but that they are here to stay.
Plenty of bands have resuscitated post-punk throughout the 2000s and 2010s, but few have done so with the passion that reverberates through Savages' debut album, Silence Yourself.
As with some modern art, you may find ‘Silence Yourself’ leaves you whispering, “I appreciated it, but I didn’t love it.”
It could be the closest post-punk has come to full-bodied artistry since Interpol took their own post-punk influences and gave us Turn On The Bright Lights all those years ago.
Savages champion essential qualities of music that are too often washed away by the Internet’s slipstream: presence, performance, togetherness, transcendence.
Their debut LP Silence Yourself is the fruits of this labour, combining the disarming thrum of their live appearances with a studio-born subtlety that showcases an ear for nuance.
In these times of austerity, Savages’ monochrome angst is 2013’s much-needed reality check.
The trick to Silence Yourself’s overall success is that Savages temper their furious moments with more measured songs, which creates ominous tension.
Whether you’ll enjoy Silence Yourself depends largely on your taste for post-punk and no wave; Savages may draw inspiration from some of the best alternative music of the last thirty years but they can be derivative to a fault.
The debut album ‘Silence Yourself’ is indicative of their vigour, but ultimately the tracks sound more as a framework for their compelling live performances and less the wholly cohesive work of art that is intended.
This album is a refreshing combination of post-punk and noise rock styles that throw back to the days of Joy Division and the like in pretty tasteful ways for one track after another, but Savages also successfully make it their own with some of the most ingeniously put together Art Punk bangers I've heard in a long minute
The instrumentals are excellent, throwing it back to the gothic post-punk stylings of the 80s, but giving most of it a modern punch and vibrancy too
The vocals done by Jehnny ... read more
High octane, woman led, no holds barred post-punk that serves to be more than just those traits. Savages debuts album compiles some of the most intense performances I've had the pleasure of listening to. Both ear shattering and ear candy.
got this album assigned to me in an album swap in Beach House's discord server! usually i'm not really into anything punk, but honestly it wasn't as bad as i was expecting, i think partly because there were some cool noisy moments that were nice. track 6 was a little bit of a dud, but an enjoyable listen nonetheless :)
1 | Shut Up 4:47 | 87 |
2 | I Am Here 3:20 | 83 |
3 | City's Full 3:27 | 80 |
4 | Strife 3:57 | 79 |
5 | Waiting for a Sign 5:25 | 83 |
6 | Dead Nature 2:06 | 69 |
7 | She Will 3:27 | 89 |
8 | No Face 3:35 | 84 |
9 | Hit Me 1:41 | 82 |
10 | Husbands 2:50 | 85 |
11 | Marshal Dear 4:03 | 82 |
#1 | / | Urban Outfitters |
#2 | / | Rough Trade |
#4 | / | BBC Radio 6 Music |
#5 | / | NME |
#5 | / | The Fly |
#6 | / | A.V. Club |
#8 | / | musicOMH |
#9 | / | Pitchfork |
#10 | / | Crack Magazine |
#10 | / | Pretty Much Amazing |