If the Manhattan Love Suicides were actually from New York, you'd probably be sick of them already. The Leeds, England-based quartet was making sweetly disheveled noise-pop reminiscent of the Aislers Set, the Shop Assistants, and the Primitives before Vivian Girls existed. They were adding Psycho to their girl-group rhythmic candy before Crystal Stilts signed to a label. Their self-titled debut proved they not only had now-fashionable reference points but also catchy, well-crafted songs; two years later, Burnt Out Landscapes, the Manhattan Love Suicides' overstuffed EPs and rarities compilation, reiterates the band's strengths while also demonstrating broader stylistic diversity than their RIYL line might suggest.
This sprawling 27-song disc collects nearly all of the Manhattan Love Suicides' best songs, including the contents of last year's Keep It Coming EP on Lost Music, Kick It Back EP on Magic Marker, and Sycamore Peripheral EP on Cloudberry, plus a WOXY radio session, previously compilation-only tracks, and other odds and ends. Fans of fast-paced, feedback-streaked guitar pop should head straight for stalker's anthem "Clusterfuck", the shrill (and superior) 7" version of the debut's do-do-do-ing "Kick It Back", or the WOXY renditions of The Manhattan Love Suicides tracks "Things You've Never Done" and "Suzy Jones". The moderately paced "You'll Never Get That Guy" finds a contrast between squealing guitars and Caroline McChrystal's girlish vocals, mirroring the lyrics, "I've got pleasure, and you've got pain"; "Keep It Coming" is Times New Viking's "My Head" hopped up on heartbreak instead of drug money. The tambourine-splashed 7" take of "Thinking Is Killing Me" ditches the self-titled LP version's acoustic strums and cello for something resembling Weezer's "Don't Let Go" blanketed in extra distortion. On "Leader of the Pack" update "Head Over Heels" and new song "Jonny Boy", the Manhattan Love Suicides explore the idealistic 1950s-1960s teenagerdom that used to obsess the Raveonettes. Meanwhile, "Sycamore Peripheral" and "Dazzle the Blind" have shimmying beats, but their buried vocals seem to betray a lack of confidence, as neither sticks in the head like the otherwise-similar "Cracked Open".
A 27-song compilation would make more sense from a better-known band-- as a 14-track best-of, this could've been almost flawless-- but it does give the Manhattan Love Suicides room to try new directions. Teenage Jesus and the Jerks cover "Orphans" slices into seething, atonal no-wave befitting the Lydia Lunch-affiliated director of the band's namesake film; "Finding the End of the Line (With Random Number)" loses McChrystal's voice in dreamy electronics and programmed beats worthy of High Places or Land of the Loops. The closest the Manhattan Love Suicides get to fellow shoegazers A Place to Bury Strangers is "Detroit Diesel", which drives straight into Darklands without losing its way. "The things that I would kill for are the things you are living for," McChrystal sings on "Wolves". Burnt Out Landscapes isn't worth killing for, but-- especially if you like to sing along to your C86- or JAMC-indebted songs, rather than just hear them convey a consistent mood-- it's well worth owning.
