fragments of stories (2007)

A laid-back, eclectic mix of music
The subtle shift is apparent from the very start, as "Can we speak" hangs on a lead riff and an almost-solo more upfront than anything on the album, albeit far too slowly played to register as overly flashy and hyped.

But more effective than these ruminations are the tracks where saru switches up their meta-aware music-about-music tendencies for the better, progressing from songs about making songs to songs about the irresistible urge to build a soundtrack to mirror one's own life. In a way, "Peace and brocolis" fits this category as well; if nothing else, it's about wanting to enhance an already, er, stimulating experience with the proper audio accompaniment. "Volume 3" is even more direct, fetishizing the process of creating the perfect mixtape in painstaking detail, right down to breaking the tabs "so you can't tape over it ever." The zenith of this subject is clearly reached on "Pulp", the single that amps up the central riff and slow motion warped backing vocals to make the song's dead-on coming-of-age headphones drama properly triumphant.

The near similarity in production values aren't always an improvement, however, as it occasionally comes at the sacrifice of the band's scrupulous spontaneity.

If you slam your head against a brick wall repeatedly and then sit down and begin to compose music this is the end result of that retarded experiment.

This is by far the most boring shit I've ever heard and quite frankly was an absolute waste of precious bandwidth that could have been used for something far more useful such as http://lemonparty.org