The War on Drugs latest outing
Slave Ambient is an apt title. Awash in a constant sound of sustain, most of the album is a bit like one of those friends who feels so uncomfortable with silence that they have to continually say something, anything. The lack of empty spaces works on some songs and not on others. "Baby Missile" opens things up (as it did on their EP Future Weather) and with it's happy beat, droning organ, jumpy lyrics, harmonica swells and fade out, it still sounds like it is embedded in an 80's movie where Patrick Swayze would leap and dance with his shirt unbuttoned. Adam Granduciel has always had a voice print that shares some of the same shapes as Dylan, Petty and The Boss and in "Brothers" he languishes on his words so much that you wonder if there is a Zimmerman somewhere in his family tree. It is sparkly and earnest but sets a familiar and somewhat forgettable pattern. "Come to the City" is a sweeping, stadium sized wanderlust of a song,
"lead me back to the place I'm from past the farms and debris"- full of scratchy film memories, a "Heroes" like bass line and Springsteen like "Whooo hooo's".
Slave Ambient is not all blue collar fury. "Black Water" (my favorite song on the album) is less washed in sound. Granduciel's voice has never sounded richer and the song takes time to grow and warmly wrap you up in it's story, "
Remember me when you dissolve in the rain- when the rivers run dry through the cold mountain range - when you turn to the name you invented to keep your identity safe from the smell of defeat". Alas, some of the instrumental compositions sound more like filler especially the anthem like "City Reprise" and the 28 second "Come for it" but "The Animator" does stand on it's own as an interesting soundscape. The War on Drugs unabashedly embrace some standard rock conventions (both musically and lyrically) and like "Baby Missile", the last track on
Slave Ambient, "Your Love is Calling My Name" again pile drives like a song in Footloose or some other 80's movie where the hero breaks out in dance. Granduciel even drawls out,
"It's gonna be alright..... yeah." To the cynics among us, some of what The War on Drugs is creating can sound so embedded in Americana rock traditions as to sound formulaic
and to those of us who are more pure of heart, their music soars with both light and dark undertones and is just plain and simply... uplifting.
Hell... maybe it is gonna be alright.
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Adler Bloom
The War on Drugs latest outing Slave Ambient is an apt title. Awash in a constant sound of sustain, most of the album is a bit like one of those friends who feels so uncomfortable with silence that they have to continually say something, anything. The lack of empty spaces works on some songs and not on others. "Baby Missile" opens things up (as it did on their EP Future Weather) and with it's happy beat, droning organ, jumpy lyrics, harmonica swells and fade out, it still sounds like it is embedded in an 80's movie where Patrick Swayze would leap and dance with his shirt unbuttoned. Adam Granduciel has always had a voice print that shares some of the same shapes as Dylan, Petty and The Boss and in "Brothers" he languishes on his words so much that you wonder if there is a Zimmerman somewhere in his family tree. It is sparkly and earnest but sets a familiar and somewhat forgettable pattern. "Come to the City" is a sweeping, stadium sized wanderlust of a song, "lead me back to the place I'm from past the farms and debris"- full of scratchy film memories, a "Heroes" like bass line and Springsteen like "Whooo hooo's".
As a composer, Mathieu Santos (bass player extraordinaire for Ra Ra Riot) is poised somewhere between Koji Kondo and Brian Wilson. In the perfectly sweet and earnest "(I just) Need to Know" I can hear whispers of both the theme to Mario Brothers and "Wouldn't it Be Nice" or a number of other songs on the Beach Boys iconic 1966 Pet Sounds album. Built around the one lyric "I just need to know" - Santos imbues the words with innocence and longing as the music dances along like a finely orchestrated video game. It is infectious and daring and one of my favorite songs on Massachusetts 2010, Mathieu's full length debut album. There is a lot to like here from "I can Hear the Trains Coming" which highlight Santos' nimble bass playing to "Silly Thoughts" which wraps a lush arrangement around hand claps. "Northern Mentality" with sparse drums, driving syncopated bass line and an 80's vibe hooks you in immediately and reminds me a bit of Santigold's sound on her debut album. Like a lot of the songs on Massachusetts 2010 it has layers and layers of amazing instrumentation. Hearing each ingredient tossed into the mix is half the fun. The other half is how far reaching these soundscapes are. "Wait to Get Up" jams with crunchy lead licks and swings like The Police style reggae. At 1 minute and 35 seconds in, I dare you not to join in the yelps. "Massachusetts" percolates with extremely lively bass, percussion and a story telling melody style that is reminiscent of South African Zulu Isicathmiya folk songs. I absolutely love "I Said So" except that it doesn't last long enough. The bass punches and kicks like a Mod / Punk song done live in a tube station. "I'd Go" also floats around that Pet Sounds vibe and would be a song that Brian Wilson would fall lovingly (or "druggingly") asleep to in his sandbox. The instrumental "Good Return Theme" is a bit of driving background music and "The Bay / Where to Find Her", to me, serves more as a musical stream of consciousness and meanders a bit but who really cares. The songs on the impressively deep Massachusetts 2010 are so original, so delicious that I can live with a couple of green jelly beans.
When "Ready to Kill," the debut album from Fullerton, California based Charles Mansion, came across my virtual desk, I instantly thought that I would be plugging into some garage punk or art rock glam ala Marilyn Manson. Instead, Charles Mansion has created a potent mix of nuvo classic rock (a term that just came to me) that feels immediate and fresh but also timeless. In songs like "Jacket and Tie" and Dig em Up" you can feel the brash blues (hard) rock of bands like MC5 and the Beatles circa 1968. Think of songs like MC5's "Black to Comm" or the Beatles' ""Helter Skelter", "Why don't We do it in the Road" (White Album) or"Dig A Pony" (Let it Be). Charles Mansion has managed to write songs that touch on that same kind of late 60's blues based rock sound played with wild abandon and some sophisticated twists and turns thrown in. In fact, to stretch the Beatles comparison a bit further, Corey Kaiser would be the Lennon (especially when his vocals are over modulated) to Tim Gray's McCartney. Kaiser's vocal bite works so well in harder edged songs like the aforementioned tracks as well as "Ready to Kill" where he strains so hard I can hear the veins in his neck bulging. All this to a backdrop of dancy guitar verse rhythms and a full on "house party gone too far" rock chorus. Gray's melodious tones are evident on "Jeign" and "Small Doses" were he can belt out and caress the lyrics at the same time. 
