Habitat - You Can't Argue With Nature review

An online write-up of Habitat's latest album, You Can't Argue with Nature, calls it a 'derailed ghost train'. First off, can we cut the empty phrases in modern music reviews? What in the shit does that actually mean? It seems meaningful in a way, but the derailed part has the opposite effect. Then again, it makes it possible to find a bit of sense in it in reference to this album if you put the stress on the derailed part. But, let's take the emptiness further and make that a ghost train with no tracks. No, make that a ghost train with no ghosts, no wheels, and no coal. Basically, that means combine the worst visions of vampire worship, pasty goth rock, shitty acoustic ramblings from your local bum who can't find work, and lots of other asinine tricks, and you get this. What a horrible, meaningless, total waste of plastic and paper.

It's very difficult to get a grasp of what You Can't Argue with Nature is trying to do, pretty much from the beginning. It starts with some rather cool, dark ambience, but suddenly, and for no clear reason, what sounds like a horrible parody of Unto Ashes with Bob Dylan playing over it slaps you in the face like a geek. At times it has moments of coolness, but the singing quickly ruins that. The vocals are delivered in this overly goth, deep and quasi-romantic tone, almost with a mocking quality. This is further developed through the worst fucking lyrics ever, which make you wonder if it's not some sort of ingenious joke. "I'm sitting home all alone......drinking blood and holding skulls in my hand" being one of the more notable lines in this vein, with some extra hilarity added right at the 'drinking' part as you hear the sound of someone guzzling liquid. Is this shit serious? Are we simply not cool enough to catch the parody? You'd think so at first, that would be your first assumption, but You Can't Argue with Nature never once shakes this sensation of being an actual gimmick and/or just as lame as it sounds at face value. Every song consists of horribly basic drums and keyboards with echoing vocals and very little semblance of quality.

And almost every song sounds so damn cheesy it makes you wonder what's really going on here. It's almost impossible to go over every single horrible sound and done-before trick that's used herein, such as backwards vocals that slowly turn around into 'You Can't Argue with Nature'. Is this for real? See, that's the main problem with it. If this is some sort of hilarious parody only the coolest of hipsters or underground fanatics can get, it still can't cover over the fact that You Can't Argue with Nature sounds like the sophomoric release of the worst local goth band in the world. There are very few moments of interest in this entire thing because every track degrades into melodramatic "singing" and poorly laid-out musical arrangements. Select a few notes on some shitty synth, cover that with a bit of echo and some Casio drums, and there you go, instant band, or so these two think. Tag yourself "goth" or whatever the fuck this is and perhaps you might find a few people who think you're accomplishing something, or who'll maybe even purchase it under the assumption that it's so underground it's actually cool. After hearing it, one gets a strong desire to ask what the deal is. Are you serious? Is it a joke? If so, how is it relevant? It's not a joke? Bauhaus help us.

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Written by Arkus