The Preatures – Is This How You Feel?
From Moka AND Natasha, filed under Haimcore…
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[6.14]
Brad Shoup: Can you wail softly? Dig the guitar on the chorus, going from Knopfleresque gallop (to say nothing of that chime straight outta Brothers in Arms) to ironic twang. Of course, one person’s composure is another’s stasis, and Isabella Manfredi turns the structure from exercise to pacing. “In each of us there are always these two/The one who stays, the one who’s leaving you” is the great lost Buckingham line, if not Quin. Repeated ceaselessly, the title isn’t nagging, more like practice. I recognize this headspace.
[8]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: A gem, perfectly measured between the AM dial and the modern FM blast; mouth-music, guitar licks and boy/girl howls of “I wanna know how you feel.” Excellent driving music for the holidays and, hopefully, spring 2014.
[7]
Katherine St Asaph: But I’ve already got a favorite Haim track. Extra point for the bridge, shimmer-glossy and the Preatures’ sole point of distinction.
[6]
Iain Mew: An extremely tight pop song of a kind I don’t have much affection for. It doesn’t just feel like it could have already existed for ages, but that it has. The parts I enjoy most are where its enclosure frays at the edges, in the distortion at the end of vocal lines but especially in the “wannawannawannawanna” that finally unleashes some brief sonic joy.
[5]
Alfred Soto: For a group with a Rilo Kiley-esque singer atop The Cure’s “Close to Me,” not bad, especially with a guitar replacing the horn section.
[6]
Patrick St. Michel: Well, I feel like you guys ran out of interesting ideas around a minute and 50 seconds into this, and sort of just winged it. Singing the title over and over again isn’t dizzying, more like you just got tired.
[4]
Will Adams: The space here is so well-controlled. The verses are up-close and dry, but when Isabella Manfredi reaches the chorus, her words begin to echo, and the guitars begin to crank up the reverb. A particularly glorious moment is right before the second chorus, when the plea, “Is it real for you like it’s real for me?” reverberates nervously, amplifying the anxiety behind the ask. It’s as if the song is inhaling and exhaling, trying to calm itself as it awaits the answer.
[7]
Reader average: [8] (1 vote)