Divine Fits

A Thing Called Divine Fits

BY Stephen CarlickPublished Aug 29, 2012

If, when Divine Fits announced their "bandness" (coining that term now), you had a hard time imagining how Spoon's studio finesse and Handsome Furs' live-off-the-floor rawness were going to successfully mesh, you weren't alone. From the outset of A Thing Called Divine Fits, it doesn't seem they will ― the synth bips of "My Love is Real" is trademark Handsome Furs-mode Dan Boeckner, and the heavy toms and handclaps of "Flaggin' a Ride" scream Britt Daniel. From then on, they begin to pull it off, blending the Spoon-ish piano riff on "What Gets You Alone" with Boeckner's wail and the incessant synths of "The Salton Sea" with Daniel's raspy croon. But it's on Fits highlight "For Your Heart," that both Boeckner and Daniel's songwriting aesthetic come together to form something more than the sum of its parts. It's an excellent record ― one that sounds both classic and unmistakably contemporary ― but, for the most part, it still sounds like the meeting of two disparate halves. One hopes that, as the band continue to gel, Divine Fits will find more common ground, where the elements of their other groups are less transparent and the signature sound they strike on "For Your Heart" lasts an entire record.
(Merge Records)

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