Voxtrot: "Trepanation Party"

I’d very much like to consider myself a Voxtrot fan, but the band doesn’t make it easy. A standout debut EP followed by another of the same caliber earned the gloomy indie rockers the title of Blog Sensations, but that title—as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Tapes ‘n Tapes will no doubt tell you—is as lucrative as it is fleeting. The hype machine doth giveth and the hype machine doth taketh away; so it went for Voxtrot, whose self-titled full-length was released in 2007 to much pre-release hype and much more post-release disappointment. The aftermath was that Voxtrot fell out favor with the online public. Where hype fare like Vampire Weekend and Fleet Foxes see backlash in the form of vocal detractors who disliked them from the start, Voxtrot were put in the unique position of having their own biggest fans turn their backs and lose interest.

The benefit of the unfortunate position Voxtrot were placed in after the release of their disappointing LP is that the band is now poised to make a comeback. And what better way to build hype for their comeback sophomore record than to unveil a new single without a word of warning? Enter “Trepanation Party,” Voxtrot’s sudden and arguably unexpected reappearance in the blogosophere after a silent 2008. As an admirer but not fervent devotee of the band’s EP material, I was pretty excited to hear what they had to offer by way of compensation for their last flop. If you’ve not yet heard “Trepanation Party,” I’ll be the one to break the bad news: as bad as you thought the Voxtrot LP was, this single is worse. Much worse.

Voxtrot have always earned comparisons to the Cure, but I’ve always seen the band as having more in common with C86 twee and early Belle & Sebastian. On “Trepanation Party,” however, the influence couldn’t be more apparent. All moody synths and icy guitar, this is Pornography (1982) or The Head On The Door (1985) for the indie rock set. And while Ramesh Srivastata’s pipes have always been too saccharine to match those of Robert Smith, there’s more than enough gothic pop swirling around him to drive the comparison home. Things start out well enough with light percussion and some spooky atmospherics, but when those dreadful synths fire up the song doesn’t just derail, it nosedives. Voxtrot, I ask you: what the fuck are you thinking? I still want to like you, but you’re making it harder than ever.