Naive Set – In Air Quotes

A break-up record from a band that almost did themselves. Naive Set seemed ready to throw in the towel after almost 10 years and three records, with band members leaving; first Arie van Vliet to start underground-darlings Lewsberg, then Matthias Kreutzer moving across the sea. “We can stand down together,” they all sang on Soft on Terror, their last and final effort as a 5-piece.

But in the pandemic, the three remaining members got wind that Jan Schenk, who recorded the band’s first LP at his Schenk Studio in Amsterdam (where bands like Black Pumas and Altın Gün have recorded), had been practicing guitar. Practicing? Funny, Jan was already a fantastic guitar player who hadn’t played in a band in years. Could he complete the set?

In the past, Naive Set flirted with naïveté, their last full-length recorded analog at Ultimate Painting’s London studio, with mistakes and tape hiss left in. But, bringing Jan in the group, the palette became cleaner, the guitar work more intricate, everything closer and more intimate.

At Jan’s studio, they began crafting In Air Quotes, a 12-song reflection on change, moving, and break-ups at an age where break-ups become heavier, hairier, when you share a home, both names on the lease. A big inspiration for the record came with the 2020 Andy Shauf song "You Slipped Away," where Shauf attempted “to write something that sounded like an old standard, using big general metaphors and universal themes.” For Naive Set songwriter, Mikey Casalaina, the idea got stuck. Can old standards be written new?

On listening to In Air Quotes, the answer is clear. Songs like "Your Heart Breaks Mine," “Moving Target,” or “Hardly a Care” make a nod to standards of the pre-rock n’ roll era, songs of heartbreak and love lost that you can imagine have simply always been. Other tracks call to mind different standard-bearers, jangly strumming patterns reminiscent of the Velvet Underground or the Feelies ("No Relation"), the slow burn of the Silver Jews (“Next Skyline Home”), or even the melodic guitar lines of Fleetwood Mac ("On and On").

You can feel an Americana vibe in guitar licks and piano flourishes, but internalized in a way that doesn’t sound retro. The lyrics reference looking back without actually going there. "Hit rewind but the tape keeps on playing."

Tracked live, the snares sparkle and bass lines have that 60's Merseybeat bounce, as rhythm section Jan-Pieter van Weel and Caspar Stalenhoef anchor the songs with both precision and vitality. The guitars, mostly clean, ring with Fender tone and drip with spring reverb, which makes the occasional dirt, fuzz, or nods to college rock and alternative all the more effective.

Mixed by Australian producer Mikey Young, known for his work with Dick Diver, Kelley Stoltz, or his own cult band Total Control, the vocals were left intentionally dry, front and center, no hiding the narratives or burying them in the music.

Themes of looking back and moving on suit a band that nearly broke up, with this record a step forward into a world turned upside down, more conscious and realized than ever before. Almost self-referentially, they sing, “let’s take another stab at making something perfect, fully realized.” This stab being their sharpest yet.