Album Review – Dark Matter Recycling Co. by The Planes (2023)(Totally Real Records / Safe Suburban Homes Records)
I recently opined that The Wends and Ryan Allen’s Extra Arms project are the only current bands that really add a bit of snarl and bite to the jangle-rock genre. I now recall that this is definitely incorrect.
The reason for this is because Brooklyn, New York’s The Planes have managed to weave a sense of structured, jangly chaos into each of their prior five albums, which my age-addled brain has completely forgotten about.
On their most recent Dark Matter Recycling Co. full-length, this is continued in abundance as Snowman and Ash take the modern power-pop tendencies of 2nd Grade and Grade School and add a perfect lack of control to the mix, while Thrift Store, Freezehead, and Between The Frame take this essence into glorious jangled shambol that grabs the listener by the collar and shakes them about a bit.
Even the less discordant tracks such as Count The Miles, Feels Like Years, and On The Shelf offer an R.E.M-style plaintive introspection that is surrounded by the stand and deliver beauty of their earliest EPs rather than the ‘accomplished pretty’ that the Athens legends eventually turned into.
Essential The Planes continue to rock…jangle-rock, and long may it continue.
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