Shot Forth Self Living

by Nitsuh AbebeThe opening of Shot Forth Self Living seems to summarize Medicine's entire approach to music: a burst of guitar feedback begins and screeches for longer than one would think tolerable -- and then, suddenly, drums and an elephantine bassline emerge and the listener finds that in the midst of all the noise, there's a beautiful pop song slipping through. Hence the omnipresent My Bloody Valentine comparisons -- both bands have found that by "burying" the primary melodies under waves of sound, they can create something more subtle and more moving than the average pop song. Shot Forth Self Living does this better than The Buried Life, Medicine's other notable album; the sound is deeper and beefier on the former, and (with a couple exceptions), the songwriting is more abstract and involving. The Buried Life had the band penning pop songs and flooding them with sound -- Shot Forth Self Living has them actually working their sound into the songs themselves.