Spit SyndicateNamed after the time writer Irving Wallace used to set aside for the work he was passionate about – his Sundays – Spit Syndicate's third album is a celebration of the joys we find between long stretches of monotony… The beauty in the bricks. It's a release that's been three years coming, a period punctuated for our hosts by the demands of work, women and everything else.
Amazing, propelled along by Adit's mini-melody, sets in stone the Double S's penchant for opening albums with exceptional songs. They began their thrilling debut with title track Towards The Light and their solid sophomore with the eponymous Exile. Amazing stands alongside those past triumphs. Beauty In The Bricks, up next, strikes the right balance between immediacy and depth. Kill That Noise begins with a Paul Keating sample (interestingly, the second time he's appeared on a Double S record) and is a tour de force for Nick Lupi, himself a fierce intellect. Sip It Slow is a monstrous party jam. Same Storey is immersive and disarming. Coffee Shop is a neat closer. Only Folly, with its jarring, saccharine hook, and Along The Way, which lacks oomph, disappoint.
This is the album you might expect from a duo who took some of their lucky fans out to dinner on a recent national tour: available, engaging, complex without being complicated. Wallace famously said, “Every man can transform the world from one of monotony and drabness to one of excitement...” He's wrong, of course. Only special men can do that. Fortunately, Nick and Jimmy Nice are two such men. With this album, they have squeezed every ounce from their spare moments and emerged with a gem.
