NE-HI - Offers

Imagine Michael Stipe recorded the early REM albums and you could understand what he was saying. Add to that a slightly beefier bass, a touch more jangle and punk and longer and lazier tunes and you have NE-HI.  Hailing from Chicago this four piece follow up their debut offering with Offers, a slightly more taught jangle-fest of album than its predecessor. 

Lyrically it’s a much more straightforward affair than many of its peers.  Prove has a driving guitar and vocal double punch and the simple chorus of ‘Why do you want to talk about it?’ repeated numerous times.  It almost feels like they are bludgeoning you with the banality of the lyric, probably by intention.  It’s on these more taught and punchier numbers where NE-HI draw you in the most.  They have a sense of purpose that some of the other tracks don’t in their almost slacker rock approach.  Everybody Warned You has a pleasant end of the night quality in its laid back guitar and slowed delivery, however it doesn’t quite deliver the impact it should.  It isn’t alone in the ‘could do better’ list of tracks on this offering.  But thankfully they are outnumbered enough, just by tracks like Palm of Hand which mixes a twang to the mix as well as a pretty decent chorus and some good harmonies.  Sisters uses the backing vocal approach to provide an almost Police meats Garage rock sound. Somehow this works better than it sounds.

What is intriguing about this collection is that rather than have you running towards the repeat button it actually has you wanting to head towards the ticket office. The sound they create almost begs for you to hear this live.  It’s stripped down enough that they would be able to really build this into a wall of noise and melody in a live session. Offers is a solid, if unspectacular album that might just become your favourite album after seeing it live.  Or just one to recycle if they have a bad night.