June of 44

One has to laud June of 44’s prolific output and their decidedly non-commercial aesthetic approach, which places equal value on both carefully plotted out songs and the meandering effluvia of studio sessions. Somewhere along the way, you also start to wonder whether they’ll ever realise that they’re a band, not a label, and hence under no obligation to release a new CD every four months. Where their last album proper, Anahata, was their most song-based for some time, In The Fishtank, the result of hastily recording songs that were still in early stages of their gestation periods at the time of their recording, veers off into unfocussed, noodling territory, where the kernel of melody and a skeleton of structure is barely discernible. Well, fine, they’re not a pop band — they’re equally under no obligation to make three-chord, hum-along ditties, and the post-rock holdouts among us may find things to like in this half-album. But to me, this sounds embryonic and unfinished — not irritating by any means, but easy to forget even while it’s playing.