3 out of 5

Label: Owned and Operated Recordings

producer: Steve Albini

I was totally unimpressed when I first put this on.  Say what you will about fidelity, recording, producers, mixing… and my nit-picking over how all of that does or doesn’t affect a listening experience – but some albums are only ‘discovered’ because they sound best played loud, or pumped through headphones.  Tanger sat through several listens and never did anything for me.  I picked it up used b/c of the Albini production credit and I dug the album art, and though it had an impressive stomp to it, it never seemed to hustle beyond “average” in my ears.  I searched for info on the group, found one review praising it for its similarites to Black Flag, which added to my lack of impress because I don’t care about Black Flag.  (Note: I have never listened to Black Flag.)  Then for a reason, for no reason, I was giving the disc one last go and played it through my computer, which was hooked up to my TV’s soundbar at the time.  And suddenly – Tanger hit me.  Albini’s work, though it certainly has the bare, low-end rumble to it, is still scattered as shit, some band’s / mixes capitalizing on the sound, some ending up exposing their weaknesses by working with the man, some recordings just what they are, whoever involved making the call to not do any work on it.  The guitar / bass / drum / spoken, shouted vocal attack of Tanger is nothing new, and it doesn’t break any new ground on this recording, but once the album clicked, I haven’t gone back.  Surprised at how much I dug it all of a sudden, I piped it into headphones and then all those little jagged buzzes of fretboard slamming just came alive, and the lyrics moved beyond their militaristic predictability to give the recording some oomph.

It’s still 3 out of 5, it’s still just a post-punk rock record, no extra flourishes, but if you let it work on you for a bit – let the band pummel you – my guess is that you’ll start to tune in also, the 12 tracks a nice dose of rock that starts and stops right about when it should.