Marcel Winatschek

The Naked and Famous Won’t Have It

The Naked and Famous were making some of the best synth-pop of that period—dense, overdriven walls of sound with Alisa Xayalith’s voice cutting through the top. No Way has the band’s characteristic refusal, that emotional register where defiance and longing get so tangled you can’t separate them anymore. New Zealand sends bands like this every few years and then the rest of the world acts surprised.