Lali Puna have always come across to me as more of a “concept” act than anything else. After hearing the rabid, foaming fanyboyish praise that got heaped on Scary World Theory, I was completely dumbfounded. The whole thing came off as a premeditated Stereolab-meets-Notwist experiment, with little of the latter’s subtle power and far too much of the former’s fey smugness. I wrote it off as by-the-numbers Post-Rock and forgot about them.
Needless to say, I had no expectations for this record, but on impulse, I decided to check it out. Glad I did. Faking the Books drops the coyness and Tinkertoy aesthetics in favor of something more straightforward and much more successful.
The opening track could have been lifted straight out of the Notwist catalog, even though it’s got a character all its own. Valerie Trebeljahr has a pensive, almost exhausted-sounding voice, and when she sings, “everybody knows/this ain’t heaven,” she evokes the type of elegaic feel that fills Notwist’s best work. Continued...