Ian King: You can definitely hear Mogwai in those synths, Editors in that beat, and (obviously) Slowdive in Rachel Goswell’s voice. Yet this isn’t what I imagined those three bands thrown in a blender in would sound like. A nice surprise, then. Unlike the final moments of the ingenious video, which you can see coming from, well, the start. Slow, bleak, inevitable… the video would make a solid anti-smoking ad. Let’s say six for the song, eight for the video, and we’ll split the difference. [7/10]
Emmanuel Elone: The throbbing synths, drums and bass are enough to make this an epic song, but the high-pitched vocals and violin section on the chorus only makes the music sound grander. “A Hundred Ropes” rushes on, steady as a river flowing towards the ocean, and it will pull you along whether you like it or not. [6/10]
Pryor Stroud: Minor Victories are an agglomeration of new-century post-punk wanderers, and their sound, elusive yet in-your-face, is an anxious stagger through the streets of some urban labyrinth stalled interminably at the strike of 12. It’s pitch black. The streetlights have stopped working. Come to think of it, when did they ever work? “A Hundred Ropes,” their debut single, takes the central melody and melodramatic ethos from Visage’s “Fade to Grey” and torques it into a high-BPM, ballistic synthpop fever-dream that takes you to dark headspaces usually only found in those placid nightmares that refuse to wake you up. One lyric that sifts to the surface — “We’ve got to find our own way out” — suggests desperate movement, and the track seizes this suggestion and runs with it: the car from M83’s “Midnight City” isn’t waiting any more, it’s speeding past sidewalks lined with half-seen figures, and you’re a passenger whether you want to be or not. [8/10]
Chad Miller: All of the individual contributions work decently well together, but the melody isn’t always interesting enough to deserve all this work. The song starts to pick up near the end though. [6/10]
Chris Ingalls: Unlike most “supergroups”, this doesn’t sound like too many ideas crammed into one place. In fact, it’s quite focused. It has the minor-key drone of Midlake mixed with the melancholia of Elliott Smith. It doesn’t really travel very far, but the short journey is worth it. [7/10]
Minor Victories’ self-titled debut album releases June 3rd via Fat Possum Records.
Minor Victories is Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite, Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell, and Editors’ Justin Lockey.
SCORE: 6.80