There’s no denying the great rapport between singer/guitarist Kate Cooper and drummer Damon Cox. It’s no easy feat to channel that much energy and pungent chemistry within a two-piece, but two years of touring – including support tours with Death Cab For Cutie and Silversun Pickups – and new surroundings have infused An Horse with more potent intent. The Brisbane-bred duo now live on opposite sides of the sphere with Cooper residing in Canada and Cox in Melbourne. After his mixing duties for the duo’s acclaimed Magoo-produced debut album Rearrange Beds (2009), Howard Redekopp (The New Pornographers, Tegan and Sara) was promoted to the role of producer for An Horse’s Vancouver-recorded sophomore album, Walls.
Despite the obvious associations with Canadian pair Tegan and Sara due to their joint tours and a palpably tight duo dynamic, it’s their passion for minimalist, gritty and emotive punk-infused indie-pop/rock that binds their cathartic, anthemic and unassumingly compelling aesthetic. Opener Dressed Sharply is full of angular hooks, agitated zest and introspection, as Cooper sings: “I don’t need any mirrors in my hallway / To remind me how I’m feeling today”. The album’s underlying theme of displacement and anxiety is evident from the opening lines: “I have nothing new to tell you / Since the last time that I wrote / But I know with certainty / Your hands will get this note”.
Brain On A Table is the album’s most notable achievement, characterised by an entrancing tension, epic crescendos and surging walls of noise. Written about Cooper’s dilemma of being on the opposite side of the world at the time of her hospital-bound mother’s surgery, her fears are vividly articulated: “My heart nearly jumped out of my head when they said that yours might stop / I’m not asking for all that much / Just please wake up”.
An Horse’s sophomore album is a consistently punchy showcase of the emotionally-astute guitar-pop that garnered the duo deserving attention in 2009, but Cooper and Cox need to infuse greater risk and versatility, as they do in songs like Brain On A Table, in order to evolve; at this point,listeners remain on an excitable ride to an unknown, but potentially bright, future.
Best Track: Brain On A Table
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: Rearrange Beds AN HORSE, The Con TEGAN AND SARA, The Woods SLEATER-KINNEY
In A Word: Sharp
