Decent Shapes

Melbourne quintet Screensaver sharpen up their tightly wound synth punk on second album Decent Shapes, an interlocking ten-song statement defined by its dynamic tension. The band still build on the influence of minimal post-punk acts like Pylon, the Delta 5, and Siouxsie and the Banshees, but this record finds them incorporating new sounds into the mix as well as experimenting with instrumentation. The influence of the Cure was apparent on their 2021 debut album, Expressions of Interest, but it feels more punctuated on songs like "Future Trash," where Screensaver arrange icy gothic guitar leads with punky disco beats that evoke Three Imaginary Boys-era Cure. The distorted synths that blare through all of "Drainer" are more chaotic and abrasive than earlier work, pushing the entire mix into the red and sounding like Warsaw-era Joy Division jamming with the Screamers. Screensaver thrive in this volatile state, slowing things down somewhat on the Tubeway Army-reminiscent new wave of "No Vacation" but still writhing as uncomfortably as on their most amped-up punk songs. Themes of corporate greed, materialism, and futile struggle to break out of the grid of consumerism come up song after song, congealing with the inherent anxiety of the music to create a dystopian listening experience. Decent Shapes feels more dire than the bands already intense earlier catalog, and its slightly more experimental tendencies only add to the albums uncommon blend of gloomy hopelessness and frantic excitement. ~ Fred Thomas