Architecturally Challenged Moments

Architecture in Helsinki’s Moments Bend turns its back on the fans that 2007’s Places Like This secured, going from an organic disc that you can dance with to an alt-electronic album without the fun. Okay, to be fair, Moments Bend has its moments of fun, but the band has cashed in their unique combination of diverse instruments, shouting vocals, and amazing use of silence for a more commonplace song-over-dance-beats formula. Shorter, sharper songs are replaced with longer, more programmable pieces. Any listener will get the feeling that the band might be growing apart—their post-production is way up—but what made them so fun before is that they sounded like they were enjoying themselves making music.

“Escapee” might be one of the crown jewels in Moments Bend. It takes the twinkling guitar that appeared on Places Like This and mixes it with Cameron Bird’s mouth-stretching vocals. But there are too many atmospheric songs like “Contact High” that lean heavily on synths and make the band sound like any number of homemade electronic acts coming out of the woodwork. Time would have been better spent avoiding the 80’s synth charge that never reaches its heights. Architecture in Helsinki could be one of Australia’s most fun exports—like The Go! Team for the UK—but if Moments Bend is a deviation to explore the more serious side of music, they will have many fans to win back in the coming years.