White Denim's Fits

Track List:
1. "Radio Milk How Can You Stand It" - 3:53
2. "All Consolation" - 2:55
3. "Say What You Want" - 2:51
4. "El Hard Attack DCWYW" - 1:58
5. "I Start to Run" - 2:52
6. "Sex Prayer" - 2:04
7. "Mirrored and Reverse" - 3:54
8. "Paint Yourself" - 3:25
9. "I'd Have It Just the Way We Were" - 2:19
10. "Everybody Somebody" - 2:53
11. "Regina Holding Hands" - 3:29
12. "Syncn" - 4:19

If you read my Thao review, then you know just how unnecessary it is for bands to reinvent themselves between albums. But sometimes I get it. The thing about debut albums is they are essentially best of compilations, especially for a band like White Denim who had a live following before they ever released an album. In my career as a songwriter, I’ve written about five songs that I really like. So, in a couple of years I might be able to stretch them into an album, but I guarantee that if I released a follow up the next year it would be comparatively awful. Following this purely hypothetical thread of logic, my follow up would likely be entirely different; a reinvention, one might say. So I’m not without empathy for White Denim, the problem is they reinvented themselves as a spazz-rock jam band. True, this is not a total transformation from last year’s Exposion, but it’s enough of a digression to raise questions.

Last year, I was just about ready to call White Denim the Spoon of jam bands. There was nothing that spectacular or innovative about the music, but the way the album was put together was so effortlessly brilliant. The hooks were captivating and, ranging from Black Crowesian rockers to sounding more like an Alien 8 band, they flowed between pop, psychedelic blues rock and jam breaks so fluidly that the genius of it all was easy to take for granted. This is why people describe Spoon albums as “growers.” After about a dozen long plays, Spoon is your favorite band, and you’re not even sure how it happened. The noteworthy difference is that Spoon has been relatively quietly making the best rock albums out there for over a decade. This is where the comparison falls apart, and why I held back with such a ringing endorsement. Two albums in and White Denim is seemingly as played out as, well, white denim.

Fits isn’t hopeless, just a little hapless. At least the album title is right on the money. This album is all over the place, sampling and combining genres, but hardly lingering in one place long enough to establish a sense of purpose. It’s a spazz. Exposion was certainly eclectic, but the difference is in the execution. The excitement of the former was in the intricate layering of jangly riffs like Bloc Party or Foals and the constant fluctuation or quick change beats like Built to Spill or Olivia Tremor Control. Eclectic is good, but it requires attention to detail. The first four tracks have about enough solid ideas to make one or two really good tracks. “Radio Milk How Can You Stand It” has a great bass line but the aimless guitars fail to capitalize. The track just isn’t captivating until nearly three minutes in when the song is on its way out. “All Consolation” has the same problem burying what could be compelling drum breaks in whammy laden, derivative noise rock. “El Hard Attack” is the first track that really stands out, but that’s mostly due to its anomalous sound. The metal riffing with a distinctively tex-mex flair is fairly incendiary, but again the band fails to develop it far enough to be anything much more than shock value. Exposion had “WDA” and “Migration Wind” which both managed to be effective without lyrics, so I know they’re capable of far more musical intrigue. Even the tracks on Fits that have lyrics are a far cry from former glory. “Paint Yourself” comes the closest to bridging the old and new tracks, but even this one feels a little like a Creedence tune.

Exposion had a clear identity despite drawing from a large pool of influences. On Fits, White Denim has lost the control that made it work so naturally just a year ago. Fits is pulled in too many different directions to purvey the sort of lackadaisical swagger of a latter day jam band. The overly ambitious “Regina Holding Hands” resonates equally of John Legend and Michael McDonald, and this sort of confusion is exemplary of the main problem of Fits; none of it fits. Fits works, but maybe Overexposed would have been a little more accurate. I hold White Denim to a higher standard than most after Exposion, but they set the bar themselves. The moral of the story is, it really is okay to take two years between albums.

Thao with the Get Down Stay Down's Know Better Learn Faster

Track List:

1. "The Clap" - 0:33 (Oh, why couldn't you have been a real song??)
2. "Cool Yourself" - 2:34
3. "When We Swam" - 2:58
4. "Know Better Learn Faster" - 3:49
5. "Body" - 3:12
6. "The Give" - 3:44
7. "Goodbye Good Luck" - 2:22
8. "Trouble Was For" - 2:47
9. "Oh. No." - 2:46
10. "Fixed It!" - 2:57
11. "Burn You Up" - 2:28
12. "But What of Strangers" - 3:37
13. "Easy" - 3:37

My initial reaction to any band I like releasing an album only a year after their prior is apprehension. Obviously, I’m excited at the prospect of more Thao tunes, but not if they’re rushed. I would much rather wait two years and fall in love all over again than be disappointed. Some bands, like Of Montreal or Nick Thorburn and his various bands, feel the need to reinvent themselves between each album, and sometimes it really pays off. But other times you get Skeletal Lamping or Arm’s Way fiascos. It’s a risk. As the title of Thao’s newest might imply, they realize that sometimes all you really need to do is build on what you have.

The best part of We Brave Bee Stings and All is the variety of instrumentation. Despite the fact that each track seems to offer something completely unique in and of itself, the band manages to create a very defining sound. It would require specific annotation of each track to fully appreciate the vast arsenal used in accomplishing their sound. On the other hand, the mature delivery of youthful wonderment can be seen without this sort of detail. It can be accurately summarized by lines like “we brave bee stings and all, we don’t dive we cannonball,” hence the title. It’s simple, it’s charming, and it’s exemplary of the genius of Thao. Like the Linen, the official debut relied heavily on the genius of Thao, but with the help of Tucker Martine’s experience producing Sufjan and The Decemberists, Bee Stings brought the whole band into the limelight. The songs, their execution and their production were all damn near pop perfection. So the question is, how can they possibly improve? Bring on the apprehension.

We start with the freewheeling “Cool Yourself” defined by the wailing guitar, the jaunty keyboard riffs and the incredibly welcome addition of the baritone sax. The track is very in the moment as if in denial of what is to come later in the album, though there are signs of preconception intimated by the musical breaks and lines like “I will love you like this now, you can recognize it later.” The title track starts steering the album towards heartbreak with the fervent strings (another welcome addition, probably thanks to the Portland Cello Project) underscoring the track’s thesis, “I need you to be better than me.” And just as the strings fade out, the line transforms to the slightly more hostile “You need me to do better than you.” Thao has a way of cutting right to the heart of the matter, either subtly as on this track, or the much more belligerent “Body.” “What am I just a body in your bed? Won’t you reach for the body in your bed” turns the hostility into outright anger. The next four tracks slow the pace of the album, taking time to reflect on relationships considering how the relationship arose, how it fell apart, why it was worth it in the first place, and what happens next, respectively. After that we’ve arrived at “Fixed It!” the bargaining track that has Thao announcing “I’ve fixed it, what you hated. I’ll keep it to myself if I can’t sell you some.” Finally comes acceptance in the snappy organ laden “Burn You Up” and “Easy” carried along, easily as you might guess, by drum machine.

Bee Stings plays like a collaboration of supremely talented musicians with a whole lot of good ideas. It sort of serves as a “Best of Childhood” mix, so when you really think about it, it absolutely should be as impetuous as it is, jumping from one idea to the next. The songwriting, lyrically, left little room for improvement after Bee Stings, but the facilitation of the music surrounding the lyrics has improved dramatically. You can really feel the construction of each track, and in every case the music serves to strengthen the story. Thao sticks to her exploration of human interaction, but hones the perspective more towards romantic relationships utilizing the five stages of grief (gold star if you picked up on that). The strength of this album is in the storytelling.

Headlights' Wildlife

Track List:

1. "Telephones" - 4:09
2. "Secrets" - 3:24
3. "You and Eye" - 3:42
4. "Get Going" - 2:39
5. "Love Song for Buddy" - 3:15
6. "I Don't Mind at All" - 3:48
7. "Dead Ends" - 3:49
8. "Wisconsin Beaches" - 3:19
9. "We're All Animals" - 5:06
10. "Teenage Wonder" - 3:40
11. "Slow Down Town" - 5:26

Headlights’ biggest problem, ironically, is that they have yet to illuminate a clear path before them. Their debut featured arguably their best track to date, “Your Old Street,” as the opener to be followed by certain disappointment. The gorgeous orchestral introduction succumbs to cymbal flourishes and a crunching bass line that dissipates as the vocals make their entrance. Two and a half minutes in it becomes a truly glorious keyboard driven pop masterpiece. Already their frenetic tendencies are apparent, but if the execution is this sharp, they’re setting the stage for a landmark indie pop or even chamber pop affair. Sadly, it was not to be. There are some good ideas that develop over the course of the subsequent 13 tracks, but none of them pack even half the punch. The battle of keys and guitar on “TV” or the synth accented gut rock of “Lions” have surely enriched their share of playlists, but they do little to help the incongruity that plagues the album. And tracks like the predictably melancholy “Pity City” or the stammering syncopation of “Lullabies” may be charming, but they bring little nuance to the table.

Two years later Some Racing, Some Stopping has our pop darlings again flirting with greatness on “Cherry Tulips,” the track that keeps “Your Old Street” from irrefutably being the best track. Few bands can compete with the simple pleasures offered in this track or tracks like “Market Girl” and “Catch Them All.” The relative absence of the electric guitar solidifies the well crafted ambience, but it’s all a little forgettable.

Thankfully, the group is not satisfied with their complacent obscurity, as proven by the return of the electric. “Telephones” is hardly a heart stopping rock revival, but the immaculate vocal duet and the ephemeral guitar solo fading back into the compelling riff is certainly evident of a level of expertise only seen in glimpses on the first two long players. “Secrets” is still a stronger bit of evidence that these guys have finally figured out how their previously scattered elements work together. The handclaps, synth hook and scaling guitar enter in rounds and a minute in this song finally delivers on the promise “Your Old Street” seemed to make three years ago. “Get Going” and “Dead Ends” serve as a link between the more exciting tracks of the debut and the grace of the follow-up infusing the insouciant elegance with (finally!) more distinctive melodies.

There are still a few definite throw away tracks, but for the first time I’m convinced that this band is on to something. The filler tracks are fewer and further between, while the best tracks blow any prior favorites out of the water. It really feels like an album. Not only is the road before them finally apparent, the high beams have been flicked on shedding light on the previously elusive melodies and rambling instrumentation that only seemed to overlap by coincidence before.