Caution - Arcola

Format: CD
Catalogue No.: BYE020CD
Barcode: 759049385707
Release Date: 29 Apr 2022
Genre: Alternative/Dream-Pop/Art-Rock

''It reminds me a lot of a less energetic and more blissed-out take on Velocity Girl, the great DC dream-pop band of the 90's. Caution are really good” Stereogum

''A band hyperfluent in power-pop, the Paisley Underground and umpteen dialects of jingle-jangle'' Washington Post

RIYL The Jesus And Mary Chain, Dummy, The Pastels.

In April 2020, the band self-released its first EP, What You Sell, a collection of pre-pandemic recordings with a focus on shoegaze-y Jaguar swirls and iridescent vocals. Invigorated by their collaboration despite its remoteness, the duo traded voice memos back and forth, completing a self-titled EP released by Chicago label Born Yesterday in early 2021. Caution was proof of concept that the duo’s distinctive chemistry could be recreated from far away. Button and Langdon felt additionally buoyed by their label’s supportiveness, and by admiration for its roster, including contemporaries Dummy, Ulna and Moontype—a crucial network in a time when touring and thus community was hampered. Energized by these relationships, Caution set to work on a first full-length.

Tracked separately at its members’ homes—using recording rigs and virtual instruments Langdon describes as “bare bones by necessity”—Arcola is an urgent, eight-song exploration of Caution’s dedication to honest sentiment and artfully warped sounds. Like on their previous releases, booming drum machines and textural reverbs feature prominently in the blend; Langdon reverently cites British ‘80s alt- and art-rock acts like Psychic TV and the Jesus and Mary Chain as influences, both on the sonic direction as well as the accompanying visual elements, which he also creates. But the avant-blues forays of Jon Spencer and Primal Scream, bit-crushed sounds of experimental music, and the melodic power of radio pop also inform Arcola. As lyricists and singers, Button and Langdon take cues from the imperative directness of The Lemonheads and Elliott Smith’s plaintive delivery.

Across the album, disorienting vocal delays coalesce into dark layers of synths; blown-out, anthemic guitar chords break apart into wide-open acoustic strums; gently buzzing bass stabs menace under soaring guitar slides and thick, trip-hoppy cymbals. Above it all are the pair’s interlocked vocals, sometimes in unsentimental unison or disparate octaves, sometimes launching off into ascendant harmonies. “A big part of Caution is singing together,” offers Langdon. While the pair have not been able to do so in person in over two years, their music has brought them closer than ever in a time when intimacy is precious. “The most overarching theme of this album is the feeling of being disconnected,” Langdon offers as a summary. “Caution has mostly existed in a post-pandemic world and we live in separate places—in that way, I mean disconnected very literally. But aside from that, most of the songs have a blurry yearning for connectivity, with ourselves or with the outside world.” Though the pair writes about cynicism, hangups and hopelessness, through the overriding joy of writing together, Caution’s members generate connectivity in abundance—both for each other, and for those who hear the results. Arcola is proof that a thousand mile separation is no hurdle for two artists whose minds work best when they meet right in the middle.

Tracklisting
1. Swerve 2. Fuck It Up 3. Hand That Looks Like Mine 4. Plainspeakers 5. Calendar of Waiting Stress 6. Start 7. Red Rose 8. Volatile