Never Bring You Pleasure

Tangiers captured a bit of attention with their debut disc, Hot New Spirits, thanks to a resurgence of young, hip, and attractive bands playing jangly, obviously retro guitar rock with a tinge of the ol' new wave. While bands like the Strokes and Interpol made a huge dent, Tangiers definitely did things the way Canadian bands typically do; unfortunately, that means a more low-key and slow-building approach (read: less immediately successful south of the border). The slow build isn't a bad thing, necessarily, because it gives you time to refine your craft, and Tangiers have certainly done that: Never Bring You Pleasure shows a much tighter Tangiers, and with more polish in the studio, too. While part of that is almost certainly from the extra time on the road, there's also a slight change in sound because half the band has changed: returning members Josh Reichmann and James Sayce handle guitars and bass again, but old friend Shelton Deverell joins the band on keyboards, and drummer Jon McCann, fresh from a stint with Guided By Voices, fills in on the skins here. You can certainly hear the influence of the early punk-popsters throughout — the reliance on the Clash-style staccato downstroke is perhaps a bit excessive — but there are also touches of more polished new wavers like the Knack, a slight touch of reggae, and a bit of the old classic garage rock, too. Never Bring You Pleasure is just polished enough to sound great, but it's still ragged enough to be gripping. In a perfect world, "I Wanna Go Out" would be splashed all over the airwaves.