White Denim - Workout Holiday [Digipak] (CD 2008)

White Denim’s debut album ‘Workout Holiday’ has been received rapturously by the critics and it is easy to see why. The record is an exhilarating mix-up of styles; raw garagey-bluesy indie rock augmented with unusual sound effects and off-kilter changes of pace and direction. There is lots of fun to be had trying to pin down the band’s musical influences; White Stripes, Pavement and even Butthole Surfers came to mind for me.

But is it any good? The answer is yes indeed. The opening track ‘Let’s Talk About It’ is superb, driven by an instantly catchy raw guitar riff. ‘Shakespeare Shake’ has a tremendous grinding bass-line around which guitars riff and jangle in an almost 60s sound. ‘Sitting’ starts with a skewed bluesy-piano intro then heads off into catchy indie-rock territory with great echoey backing vocals. ‘I Can Tell’ is a great, raw bluesy stomp with a psychedelic mid-section and does it all in less than two minutes.

If you love music with a bit of daring and experimentation this is the record for you. ‘Mess Your Hair Up’ is a case in point; it starts straightforwardly enough as tracks before it but after a couple of minutes weird, almost electronic effects come in before the song changes direction completely, ending with a burst of guitar distortion worthy of fellow Texans Butthole Surfers.

‘Workout Holiday’ has a lo-fi, DIY aesthetic to it but I believe it to be a very carefully crafted record; all the mish-mash of styles work so well and the quality is strong throughout. Time will tell whether it is a true classic but if your interest hss been piqued by its rave reviews then dive in, you won’t be disappointed.