Send "Nurses " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Tinymixtapes |
 The now Portland-based psychedelic pop band Nurses have always had a sound peculiarly their own. While inevitably adjusting themselves to the music around them, Nurses have also long channeled some of the more 'carnivalesque' sounds of the 70s and 80s. In their past two albums, they've evoked bands like The Cure and their psychedelic pop album The Top, post-Oceans Artery, and practically the entire catalogue of The Birthday Party. It's certainly been interesting to follow their musical progression over the years, and on their third album Dracula, Nurses give us reason to keep following by taking their sound in an unexpected direction.Dracula represents as much a significant aesthetic detour from second album Apple's Acre as the latter did from debut Hangin' Nothin' But Our Hands Down two years ago. While Nurses sounded like a slightly off-kilter, Radiohead-influenced, Midwestern indie rock band on their debut, with singer Aaron Chapman alternately sounding like Robert Smith or every other so-called indie music singer in 2006, Apple's Acre saw the band embracing the more bizarre and psychedelic aspects of the first album with increased confidence. Dracula, in turn, takes the psychedelic sounds of Apple's Acre and supplements them with deep, rich percussion; it's Nurses' funky dance pop album, and thankfully they've also conjured up some irresistibly catchy melodies to complement them....full text |
| Onethirtybpm |
| Nurses’ entire brand is built off personality. Granted, that brand is founded on the laurels of just two mostly unheralded albums to this point, but nevertheless, the band’s genetics have been fairly well established. On Dracula, not a whole lot has changed. Aaron Chapman’s vocals, the biggest thing that separates Nurses from their closest peers, are as sharp and addicting (and divisive, too) as ever. This is certainly a much more antiseptic record than their last, a progression that lends their sound a little more depth but sacrifices plenty of the organic, backyard-bred charm that helped make Apple’s Acre so infinitely redeemable. Nurses’ third full-length begins with “Fever Dreams,” the lead single and prime point of introduction for what their sound brings to the fold. Industrial clicks and clacks quickly lead to wobbly guitar and percussion, which is then promptly washed over by Chapman’s challenging drawl. His words are difficult to understand at first, if only because he sings practically every note through his nose, his pitch and inflections equal parts airy and whimsical. It can be a challenging sound, but ultimately his vocals – as they have on previous releases – maintain a carefree quality that drives the mood forward successfully. “Fever Dreams,” like several tracks on this LP, can be a little bit repetitive, with only occasional splashes of cymbal between a lot of very similar moments and layers. Still, it’s a nice aesthetic and the harmonies are every bit as addictive as “Caterpillar Playground” or “Technicolor,” the two big Apple’s Acre standouts....full text |
| Popmatters |
| When Steven Malkmus mused about the voice of Geddy Lee in Pavement’s “Stereo”, his band was still under-dogging its way through a commercial rock landscape rife with singers whose mouths sounded full of marbles. That post-grunge moment was nearly 15 years ago, when beyond the likes of Coyne, Yorke, Lytle, and Linkous, few male pop/rock singers were gaining notice by courting Lee’s register. Malkmus’ laid-back but literate style was in another class altogether, wary of both earnestness and exertion, and all the more interesting for it. Yet the march of modern rock through time and (increasingly virtual) space has seen the tide turn for guys who pitch their voices to the sky. Many of today’s most critically adored artists have seemingly reached that point by edging away from the virile roots of rock, sidelining decisive rhythms and ceding macho vocal delivery to acts with arena appeal but without much critical currency. This rise of falsetto is a dubious development. Separating the men from the boys, as it were, is largely a matter of being able to spot the point at which the voice blends dynamically with the music or lifts the whole piece into ether – light as air and little more than pretty....full text |
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