Courtesy of Captured Tracks.

Naomi Punk‰’s sound can be metaphorically compared to Woody Allen‰’s favorite font, Windsor: “Windsor is an unusual design cut by Stephenson Blake in 1905. Windsor is a bold face with heavy rounded serifs and strong diagonal stress‰” (description by Linotype). Unusual, bold, heavy, and strong are four words that can easily summarize Naomi Punk‰’s sound on Television Man. 

Take the halfway track “Eon of Pain.‰” The track runs just over four minutes long, with the first half made up of a repetitive metronomic rhythm, fully emphasizing the powerful downbeats of the guitar, bass, and drums combined; these could be seen as the “strong diagonal stress.” The “heavy rounded serifs” represent the overall atmosphere that blossoms from Naomi Punk’s introverted gloominess, with the weight of the world resting on their shoulders.

The band finds inspiration for their unusual sound through repetition and minimalism; two characteristics that other Washington state-based acts are very familiar with. With this being said, it is nearly impossible to compare Naomi Punk’s music to that of any other band. The group’s name does in fact reveal the music scene most influential on their career, but when it comes down to it, their innovations of this punk sound has allowed them to perform in a genre reserved strictly for themselves.

The songs from Television Man sound similar to each other, which has caused a bit of speculation among critics. What these mindless listeners don‰’t realize is Naomi Punk reaches for a level of musicality that is not accessible at the surface; it requires more effort from the listener.

Two songs in particular that critics label as sounding alike are the title track and eight-minute closer “Rodeo Trash Pit.” After listening to them back-to-back it’s almost comical that this argument could be made, seeing as they aren’t even in the same key. “Television Man‰” presents the idea of melody and harmony by incorporating intricate scalar riffs, a rare occurrence within the realm of punk and grunge scenes. Meanwhile, “Rodeo Trash Pit‰” is their anthem. It‰’s sludgy, heavy, and any adjective along the lines of “pessimistic.” It could even be argued to be the song of the year, especially when paired with its precursor “Whirlpool of Anguish,‰” a thought-provoking instrumental track that will leave you in a state of wonderment.

Naomi Punk strive to transcend the barriers set by trendy, popular music, and they do so effortlessly. This parallels their transcendence of gender with the name “Naomi‰” and continual themes regarding their support of feminism. They seem committed to challenging the standards of the world around them, anything but monotonous. Their musicality is incomparable; Naomi Punk is one of the most important bands of 2014.