It’s actually quite impressive. Hands and Knees not only make matching X with The Banana Splits sound easy, they make it sound natural, as if they were sitting around in someone's living room on a Sunday afternoon jamming on some spontaneously generated but perfectly crafted Sonic Youthy McCartney countryish bubblegum X sounding songs, and someone just happened to roll tape and capture the whole affair for posterity.
Et Tu, Fluffy? creeps in on acoustic guitars and handclaps, and just over half an hour later creeps out again the same way, buoyed by a lovely hook played on a thumb piano. But for a record that comes and goes so modestly, nearly every song of the album’s eleven is a perfect little self-contained world. "Hot Little Item" blends a shuffle beat with new-wave guitars and a chorus that draws on "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain," and "You Thought it'd Make You Feel Better" manages to fit the twisted boy-girl harmonies of X right next to Minor Threat and an amped-up Paisley Underground bounce. “Anywhere But Here” throws turbulent, noisy guitar up next to a tart and echo-laden female vocal performance, and the vocal performance on the 90-second long “Shove It Up Your Heart” is a tough little mash note to Exene Cervenka and John Doe of X.
And, honestly, it’s so nice to find a band who do what they come to do, and then shut up! Only one song on Et Tu, Fluffy? (the lovely album-closing “Whatever Happened to That Beautiful City?”) tops three and a half minutes. Thank you! Thank you, Hands and Knees for saying what needs to be said, and playing not one note more. I mean, I’m a pretty big Mastodon fan, but I don’t really need to hear a 13-minute multi-part opus about Czarist Russia (a la “The Last Baron” on 2009’s Crack The Skye) all that often. On the other hand, I can throw “Whatever Happened to That Beautiful City” on repeat, open my blinds, and stare out at a beautiful sunny afternoon any time at all (right this minute, in fact).
I do suppose it’s odd to claim that the future is made of three-minute pop songs complete with handclaps, but plus ça change, I suppose. We don’t have jetpacks yet either. In any event, Hands and Knees have made a damn good charming and winsome little record, and kept their eyes squarely on making the eleven songs on Et Tu, Fluffy? as good as distorted, low-fi power pop is likely to get.
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