Behaviours by Sex With Strangers – CD Review

November 29 2012 – On November 26th, Sex With Strangers released their fourth independent album entitled “Behaviours”.  

T-Mak World first caught their act at Indie week (reviewed here). Sex With Strangers (SWS) live show has to be experienced with front man Hatch Benedict and band put on an eclectic, yet rocking entertaining show.  This made us wonder, could the band capture that energy on an album.

“Behaviours” was Produced by Adam Percy and recorded at Garth Richardson’s Fadermaster Studios in Vancouver, and it also marks the first album with new vocalist/keyboards player Alexis Young, whose distinctive voice and melodies bring a new dimension to the band. SWS wanted to change the perceptions of the band from their first 3 albums which were concept albums.  SWS also wanted to have the listener question whether they are actually listening to the same band from song to song.  Mission Accomplished! 

“Behaviours” challenges the listener and is not an album to chill out to.  Listening to “Behaviours” is like listening to a radio station that plays 80, 90s and 2000 music.  For albums and even radio, consumers have become used to all songs in an album sounding very similar and generally music is a popular way to escape the brain pounding thinking of school or work. Sex with strangers describes their music as “The Human League in a bad mood” which aptly describes their sound.  Like many bands with both male and female singers such as Sony and Cher, Fleetwood Mac (70s), Martha and the Muffins (80s), B52’s (80s) and Metric (2000s) this leads to the ability to capture different emotions and have the back and forth between the 2 sexes.

The album starts with Behaviours a great intro to the dual vocals and shows the complex layering and sound that is common though their music. Behaviours also captures the playful and fun sound of their live show.  Next up is I See The Gun (And You’re The Bad Guy), a catchy name for a song that starts with a great organ sound and builds and captures the chaotic atmosphere of the title of the song.  One wonders what whether the inspiration for the song is from real life or watching too much TV or movies. Alexis’s distinctive voice is heard on the very radio friendly alt pop sounding Time Electric as well as Blindness. Conspirators and Wave My Heart has the post punk sound that must have been inspired by Joy Division.

Machineland shows the power of Hatch’s voice in a song that is most reminiscent of 80’s Vancouver band Images in Vogue and other New wave bands such as Depeche Mode.  With lyrics such as “where do you go in a secret, becomes your life, every night” and “Where do you sleep in machineland to make it right” resonate with today culture where social media such as Facebook gives us all virtual lives in the machine that are sometimes more real than reality and persistent. Time Electric, Machineland and Wave My Heart would have received lots of air play on CFNY 102.1 (Toronto station) in the 80s and 90s.

The Brave One, Terrible Things, Call in the Night, and Pentagram Blues show the harder side ranging from modern alternate rock with tones of industrial to metal that would play well on the Edge 102.1 today.

Verdict:  4 out of 5.  Sex With Stranger’s “Behaviours” is the Swiss Army Knife of albums.  Much like switching from a simple pocket knife to a Swiss Army Knife, one is overwhelmed at first.  With further exposure one realizes what power and versatility you now have in your possession.  Someone looking for a challenging listen (to what  might be described as Cerebral Rock) but from a band who at the same time sounds like it is having fun (a’la Tenacious D, Metric or Florence and the Machine) will enjoy getting acquainted with Sex With Strangers.