Zeus' Say Us

Track List:
1. How Does It Feel?
2. Fever of the Time
3. Kindergarten
4. The Renegade
5. Greater Times on the Wayside
6. River by the Garden
7. You Gotta Tell'er
8. I Know
9. Marching Through Your Head
10. The Sound of You
11. Heavy on Me
12. At the Risk of Repeating

Rating: 75

Here’s the thing about Zeus. The concept is great; king of the gods, ruler of Mount Olympus, all powerful slinger of lightning bolts – can’t miss, right? But in reality (or mythology) he’s some crazy son of a cannibal father who uses his allegedly boundless powers primarily to transmogrify into various animals and seduce women. It’s sort of like finding a genie in a lamp and wishing for a sandwich, a Coke and a refill. Why not wish for unlimited food and drink? Why transform into an animal to get with human ladies? It’s a truly baffling misuse of talent, entertaining though it may be. In this regard, Zeus is a pretty fitting name for the band formerly known as Paso Mino. Stepping out from behind Broken Social Scene’s Jason Collett (when can we expect BSS to formerly present him?), Mike O’Brien and Carlin Nicholson demonstrate all of the rudimentary necessities to follow and even one-up fellow British invasion roots rockers Dr. Dog, The Zutons, or the less British Delta Spirit. The heart-breaking reality falls short of the potential as the lightning they sling is less striking than it ought to be.

In typical indie rocker fashion, Zeus denies any attempt towards creating roots rock, claiming their debut, Say Us, is just them doing what they do. But really, nobody could achieve a better crossbreed of The Beatles and Kinks if the were trying. O’Brien and Nicholson split vocal and songwriting duties and even harmonize in a spot on Lennon/McCarthy impression. The noteworthy addition of piano, and its bouncing riffs, since their Paso Mino days really embodies the Kinks’ vibe. All that said, there is nothing about this album I dislike other than being slightly underwhelming. Overall, it’s better than The Zutons’ or Dr. Dog’s debut, and damn close to Delta Sprit’s. What’s missing are the standout tracks, like The Zutons’ “Pressure Point” or Delta Spirit’s “People C’mon.”

At first pass, the impression I came away with was sort of a confused disappointment. There is an unfulfilled yearning left in the wake of these eleven tracks, and for a while, I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Initially I assumed the problem was a lack of variety because I really had trouble recalling specific moments or tracks that I liked, or even disliked for that matter. But now I’ve identified the main source of disappointment. What should have been the best tracks fall flat because there’s just so little life in the vocals. “Greater Times on the Wayside,” the short intro to “River by the Garden,” comes in like a breath of fresh air in all of its McCartney-esque “Oh, Darling” glory. The first three tracks would have been significantly stronger with this sort of aching vigor, but they come off more Julian Casablancas.

With the exception of “I Know,” tracks four through eight are the definitive peak of the album. “River by the Garden” and “You Gotta Tell’er” are surely the standout tracks, but mostly in terms of style rather than quality. “River” glides along on a very low-key finger-plunked walking guitar riff which is notably sparse by comparison, especially to the crunching “You Gotta Tell’er” sounding much more like 70s Doors or Zeppelin than 60s Brit-pop. The qualitative stand out come two tracks later in the form of “Marching Through Your Head” where we can use the term “vocal range” for the first time, and sadly, the last. It’s got that intoxicating swing that makes me really want to like “Kindergarten” the best, but it’s just got more star quality.

I can’t speak authoritatively on this next point, but if Dr. Dog and Of Montreal have taught me anything, and if you can believe what you read online, it’s that these songs almost surely take on a whole new dimension live. It took about five albums for Dr. Dog and Of Montreal to really take hold of the energy they possessed in live performance and translate it to the studio. Now, I’m not predicting any sort of radical transformation like Of Montreal has undergone (is undergoing), but it’s certainly a much different role to shift from backing band to the band. If this review seemed hard on the boys, it’s only because I see such huge potential.