The Argives
Nothing Better Beginning (ASP)
Reviewed by Greg Beets, Fri., Feb. 9, 2007
The Argives
Nothing Better Beginning (ASP)
Combining young man blues with Brit-flavored power-pop, Austin's Argives deliver a high-minded, extra-cathartic wallop with their 12-song debut. Though its title nods to the Kinks, the lager-fueled strains of mid-Seventies era Squeeze and Elvis Costello are more immediate touchstones. Between his Glenn Tilbrook tone and foggy bar-stool profundities like, "Friends are mostly enemies to men in need of women," guitarist/vocalist Michael Molnar betrays none of his time spent in the rockabilly-flavored Bellfuries. "A Young Man's Dream" is a deceptively bop-happy dissection of carefree backpacker cocksmanship, while "Don't Lean Over the Gunwale, Darling," pits a nautically themed battle of relational wits against a harrowing, Steve Nieve-style keyboard salvo fired by no-nonsense producer Ron Flynt. The resourceful trio (now a quartet) drives home their mission with the album closer "Shake Awhile," a clarion call to get it while the getting's good. For the Argives, that time is now.
