Character
We Also Create False Promises (Fictitious)
by Marc Hirsh

originally published in Amplifier, January-February 2005

By jamming on ideas rather than grooves, as in “Die In A Woman’s Lap” (which appends Strokes verses to a “Telstar” chorus) and the Stereolabby “What You Are In The Dark,” Nashville instrumental band Character manages the peculiar contradiction of being timidly indulgent. Taking a cut-and-paste approach to composition (“Progressive Democrat,” in particular, is comprised of seemingly unrelated sections) and often without the throughline of an explicit melody, the songs on We Also Create False Promises demand that the listener like whatever is happening right at that moment, and if not, the song is dead in the water. If the members of Character have short attention spans, then they can’t really blame their listeners for the same.

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