Left As Easy As It Came

Chavez “Blank in the Blaze”

Chavez songs share a similar formal logic in which tension is introduced and then doubled or tripled before it is released. Matt Sweeney and Clay Tarver’s guitars on the new song “Blank in the Blaze” alternate between melodic part that tighten up like coils of metal wire or riffs that clench up like fists. The approach is exactly the same as when they more regularly produced music 20 years ago; this could easily be an outtake from Ride the Fader. There are some bands who could come back after a long hiatus and end up feeling different, but it makes sense that Chavez would snap into their distinctive groove, since the band emerged from a set of clear formal rules and restraints. And all of those rules are there just to make sure that you get exactly what’s at the end of “Blank”: a soaring sensation of triumph tempered by a feeling of exhaustion and lost.

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