If you're coming to this record because Andrew Becker was in Dischord band Medications, then you're not alone. That fact is what drew me to Human Potential and their new one, I Write Wedding Songs. And while little of this sounds much like Devin Ocampo's band, there's stuff here that made me stick around with this L.A.-based outfit.
More art-rock than post-punk, the tunes of Human Potential are spindly affairs, like the smartly-titled "Clear Notes For A New National Anthem". That one, cooing vocals and all, sounds like notes were cribbed from post-2001 Radiohead, though "Glimmer Thrills" goes even further back, drawing from late-era New Wave synth-stuff for inspiration. Andrew Becker's rough vocals keep all of this from feeling too slick, with opener "Cut Worm Forgets the Plow" serving up angular hooks, impassioned vocals, and a nearly-prog-inspired sense of instrumental ornamentation. The wonderful "Idiot Moon" is a real highlight here for me, with focus given in this one to sharp shafts of percussion, samples, and percussion which underpin the near-soundtrack-like piece.
There are lots of things on Human Potential's I Write Wedding Songs which may earn comparisons to acts like Wild Beasts, and that's fair. Andrew Becker approaches this material almost as if the tracks are parts of a larger whole, as if this is the score to a film running maybe only in his mind. We're just along for that ride, and I'm fine with that, given the invention here.
I Write Wedding Songs by Human Potential is out now. Details below.
[Photo: Human Potential Bandcamp]