Best New Tracks - Pitchfork: Minor Victories: "A Hundred Ropes"

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Minor Victories: "A Hundred Ropes" Posted: 23 Feb 2016 12:30 PM PST The tired old "supergroup" concept finally has more potential to be super. Time was, a band of already-famous musicians was most likely to bring together people who already lived (and drank) in the same place—as with, for example, Johnny Depp and Alice Cooper's Grammys-approved Hollywood Vampires. Today, the ability for artists to collaborate across long distances is nothing new, but something still feels novel about such an accomplished and unpredictable broadband-connected group as Minor Victories. The project unites Slowdive singer/guitarist Rachel Goswell, Mogwai guitarist Stuart Braithwaite, and Editors' guitarist Justin Lockey, plus his brother James Lockey. (According to a press release, the band "barely spent any time" in the same room collaborating.) Their upcoming LP promises guest appearances by Mark Kozelek and the Twilight Sad's James Graham, but it's thrilling how the best of each member's better-known bands coheres all on their own on this first track, "A Hundred Ropes." Minor Victories' synth-pop is stylishly dusky, with lush orchestral touches, motorik persistence, and a closing guitar cacophony. "Here we are," Goswell murmurs, adding, "with no way to go back." Onward, then.