Tapes n' Tapes - Outside

At some recent point in their nearly eight year history, Minneapolis indie rockers Tapes n' Tapes discovered one fundamental truism: music is best when it's fun, not so much when it's work. So after their '08 second album Walk It Off -- larger budget, a real producer and studio, expanded distribution via London based XL label -- the band retreated to D.I.Y. status, took a breath and then set about to make the appropriately titled Outside, arriving January 11 via the band's own label. Self-financed, self-produced and mixed by Peter Katis (The National), Outside is loose and limber, eleven tracks that bristle with angular and tough-minded authority while still swimming freely in the melodic deep end of the pool.

“We had a great time making Outside," says singer/guitarist Josh Grier, "and we wanted our enjoyment of the process to be audible in the recording, and I think we succeeded.” Lead track "Freak Out" jostles between pounding, wall-of-sound intensity and a sing-along chorus hook, a physical presence that's not as much muscular as it is wiry and agile. As with the best of Tapes n' Tapes, nothing gets pinned down for long, the attitude is as freewheeling as the sound. The heat gets turned up on the taut, fervid "The Saddest of All Keys" and then abruptly slackens into the drifting lament "Hidee Ho" before jutting into the wicked noir slow dance "People You Know". Smart and invigorating, Outside, doesn't feel the need to draw blood but it does pack a potent punch. Video for "Freak Out" after the jump.

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Tapes n' Tapes - "Freak Out" (from the album Outside)