Review: Carnivores – Second Impulse

A drumbeat just shy of lo-fi, a thin, spineless guitar with a tone so frail and twangy it feels cute (which is not a bad thing) and a 60s-sounding synth unite Second Impulse despite the vocalists switching from one track to the next. Energy seeps from every song, but “Sinking in Your Automobile” calls me back for more and more, reminiscent of a house party with The Growlers. The vocals in the choruses slide between rough almost-monotone chants and falsetto sustains with smooth melodic shifts, and I get lost in the daze of the mixed noises behind the soloing guitar and keyboard in the instrumental segments. –Steve Richardson