the holographic review

New London Fire
"I Sing the Body Holographic"
(Eyeball)

When I first heard the debut album from New London Fire a year ago, I swore up and down that it was going to be the biggest thing since Depeche Mode, or at least The Killers. A few months after streaming their album on their site, the band then released a free teaser EP called "A Wave Form" via the interweb, and then...nothing.

Originally slated to be released back in the winter, New London Fire's "I Sing the Body Holographic" finally finds a proper release on Eyeball Records, which isn't too big of a surprise considering that singer Dave Debiak's Sleep Station has been on Eyeball since its inception.

A vast departure from the indie rockness of Sleep Station, NLF is a nu-wave band, which makes it more of a shame that their record wasn't released a year ago. But that doesn't mean that the songs have declined in quality, quite the contrary, actually.

The lead single," Different," though featured on numerous comps and the "Wave Form" recording, still sounds great and ambitious. The subtle track "Nadine" is a throwback to latter-era R.E.M., the album builds up to the anthemic "Gremlin in the Machine" only to walk away slowly with the final track "Somewhere in Between," an acoustic campfire tune (complete with group singalongs, mind you).

There are some seemingly uninspired moments on the record: on "Someone Like You," the male/female vocal play sounds close to Open Hand's "Tough Guy/Girl" and "When I Try" is the same old generic nu-wave crap that made Action Action's first album the stinker it was.

Though it's a shame that the record seems trite given the amount of bands who've come out Moog-ing themselves to death, a good record is still a good record and at least New London Fire have that going for them.