popwreckoning

Blitzen Trapper, with three previous Sub-Pop albums under their belt, have produced quite the wide array of sounds. 2007′s Wild Mountain Nation sounds as if it was thrown together with reckless abandon, a giant mish-mash of sounds and passions. There were indie-rock melodies and folky boot-stomping tunes with a healthy dose of country twang. 2008′s Furr leaned more to the pop-rock side of the spectrum with Americana intertwined through and through. And next was Destroyer of the Void which took on a new sound altogether with prog-rock guitar sounds and a mellower tone. So who could really predict what would be next? At first listen, American Goldwing is a nice homage to Furr with influences of traditional Southern rock. It’s blatantly alternative-country and maybe a little bit indie. If anything, it showcases the band’s versatility to record whatever they want and turn it into an album. And it sounds great.

There’s a flurry of noise from multiple different instruments throughout the entire album – heavy bass, buzzing and sliding guitars, banjos, harmonicas, pianos… you name it, there’s probably an appearance. The album is lively and an entertaining and engaging album from start to finish. Noodling guitars and the southern drawl of lyrics keeps it light-hearted and energetic.  It’s rare to find a songwriter who can take such a large swath of influences and put them together, and it’s exciting when they sound so great together.

“Fletcher” is an ambling blend of backwoods country with its drunken escapade lyrics grounded by Earley’s sweet, Southern Comfort delivery and the guitar sounds by Marty Marquis. Marquis is a great asset to the group,  generating edge and bite in contrast with Earley’s gentleness and flowing songwriting. “Street Fighting Sun” is his best of the album, a showcase  guitar power that growls and shrieks and provides great depth to the song. The chemistry of these two musicians creates a unique sound that paves most of “American Goldwing’s” middle ground, creating an easygoing sound stylistically country but instrumentally classic rock. “My Home Town” and “Girl In A Coat” are a welcome breather from the upbeat frenzy of the rest of the album, with acoustic-y guitars, banjos, and the occasional piano. Things pick right back up though and the self-titled track aptly mirrors the overall feel of the album.

With loads of praise from Rolling Stone and Spin Magazine, Blitzen Trapper are destined for great things in the world of indie, alt-country tunes and American Goldwing is a solid addition to their catalog of tunes.

Track list:

1. Might Find It Cheap
2. Fletcher
3. Love The Way You Walk Away
4. Your Crying Eyes
5. My Home Town
6. Girl In A Coat
7.  American Goldwing
8. Astronaut
9. Taking It Easy Too Long
10. Street Fighting Sun
11. Stranger In A Strange Land

www.blitzentrapper.net 

In the wide world of female performers, you have two camps: one that values extravagant style over substance (e.g., Lady Gaga, Beyonce, recent upstart Kreayshawn) and the other valuing substance over their own understated style (the folk singers, generally). Of the latter category is 20-year old Alessi Laurent-Marke, who records under the name Alessi’s Ark. Laurent-Marke will be getting her first widespread North American debut as the Londoner supports Laura Marling on a 2-week tour of our continent.

She will also be promoting her first full-length release in America, Time Travel, scheduled for release on September 27 on Simon Raymonde’s Bella Union label. (The album was already released in the UK in April, and there are some songs on Spotify [some old, some new] to tide you over until the actual release of the album here.) I am quite pleased that Alessi’s Ark is finally getting attention on this side of the Atlantic, as I’ve been keeping tabs on Laurent-Marke since her first album, Notes from the Treehouse, was released in Britain in 2009.

Alessi’s Ark songs generally follow one rule: they’re all very short. On Time Travel, only the title track and “Stalemate” go over 3 minutes, with some of the other songs not even going past the 2-minute mark. This can be good or bad; in the good sense, Laurent-Marke’s thoughts are put into small, compact compartments, like something you want to scuttle away in a dark corner of your pocket and save for a rainy day. But in the bad sense, you’re left wondering where the song would have gone, had she decided to soldier on with her thoughts. The best example on the album is “Wire” (download it from Bella Union here, video below). It appears to be a cryptic love letter to an important woman in her life (her mother? a lover?) that is now dearly departed. Yet there is also clear the acknowledgment that she feels lost, forsaken, and misunderstood (“I’m tired of walking this wire / it keeps me awake for heaven sake / I was made for this girl / I feel lonely / my friends don’t seem to know me / like I thought they did / I thought they did, but they don’t”). The angst of growing up is of course a common theme across many genres of music, but I’d like someone to come up with a song as elegant as this.

The beauty does not end there. “Run,” barely clocking in at a minute and a half, is the musical equivalent of seeing the moon’s reflection in a still lake. In “On the Plains,” Laurent-Marke uses simple chord changes against her effortless vocals for a simple love song. Flutes add a level of whimsy to this track, and throughout the album, you will find also find brass instruments supporting the standard folk backdrop of thoughtful guitars and Laurent-Marke’s calm voice. It’s almost unbelievable that someone so young could have such great control over the sounds that come out of her mouth. Then again, remind yourself who she’s touring with: Laura Marling, merely 1 year her senior. In the tune “Stalemate,” she admits, “the only thing I’ve learnt is I like singing / all the lessons that the guitar is bringing.” Something America should learn – and quickly: all aboard Alessi’s Ark, and prepare to enjoy the ride.

Time Travel, the first American release for Alessi’s Ark, will be released on September 27 on Bella Union. Catch Laurent-Marke on tour, supporting Laura Marling, on the dates below.

Track Listing
01. Kind of Man
02. Wire
03. On The Plains
04. Must’ve Grown
05. Time Travel
06. The Fever
07. Blanket
08. Maybe I Know
09. Stalemate
10. The Robot
11. Run
12. The Bird Song

Tour Dates (supporting Laura Marling)
Sept 22 – Lincoln Hall / Chicago
Sept 23 – Great Hall / Toronto
Sept 24 – Corona / Montreal
Sept 25 – Brighton Music Hall / Boston
Sept 27 – Sixth & I Historic Synagogue / Washington, DC
Sept 28 – Webster Hall / New York City

Alessi’s Ark: website | myspace

What do hip hop, rock and country have in common?

Seemingly nothing. Except they each contribute to Clay Hughes’ genre-bending album The Whether Machine.

Released on June 7 through Sharp County Records, various Midwestern musicians came together for the project, including producer JKR70, Lennon Bone (Ha Ha Tonka) and Mac Lethal, to name a few.

This cross-genre collaboration is just partially the reason this album could appeal to a wide range of music lovers. The other reason: singer and guitarist Clay Hughes. His low, soulful voice could be featured over any backdrop, attracting indie kids with tracks like “The Love I Gave Ya,” which predominantly embraces instruments, and hip-hop fans with tracks like “Confessin’,” highlighting emcees Johnny Polygon and Jabee.The fluid movement is sure to keep you interested and engaged, even if the style is not something you usually listen to – I knew when I first saw Clay Hughes live that I had never heard music quite like his (and I’ve been hooked since).

The music of English duo Slow Club has slowly but surely been making its way into America’s consciousness. The most recent appearance of the act’s sound was of the song “Apples and Pairs” from their first album released in 2009, Yeah So, at the end of an episode of Showtime serial “United States of Tara.” Slow Club hails from Sheffield, a place that most people outside of the UK associate Def Leppard, Pulp, and Arctic Monkeys with. So it’s great that this pair is putting the Northern city on the map for folk rock instead.

The album was released this week on Moshi Moshi, a London indie label that seems to have a good finger on the pulse of the best from the underground English music scene, always managing to pick the cream of the crop from blighty. (And while I’m here, I might as well clue you in to two other bands on their roster: Trophy Wife [from Oxford, England, not the one from Philadelphia] and Summer Camp [another boy/girl singing duo, from London]; if you haven’t heard of these bands yet, you will. Soon.)

The album’s lead single “Where I’m Waking” begins aggressively, almost Sleigh Bells-like. Thankfully, Rebecca Taylor and Charles Watson pull it back with the right amount of restraint. The result is bouncy and fun, certainly one of the sunniest tracks on the album (possibly tied with the equally energetic “The Dog”), so it fits in nicely as part of “the story so far” coming off the success of Yeah So‘s more recognizable tracks. While neither is a “Giving Up on Love,” they’re still pretty good.

“Two Cousins,” the opening track of Paradise, also skirts the noise-pop barrier again, with bracing vocals. Is this the same band? It has been suggested by several British music pundits that Slow Club has “grown up” in this album, most noticeably with Watson’s voice being less young-girly and the duo’s foray into more bluesy, almost gospel territory (see: “Never Look Back”, “You, Earth or Ash”) utilizing their strong harmonies.

Taylor and Watson’s near perfect vocals in Yeah So are what made people fall in love with Slow Club, and while these great vocals are still present in Paradise, the percussion is cranked up in the wrong places and some instrumental choices have been made that are not flattering to the vocals. The title of “Hackney Marsh” is, I assume, a loving reference to the part of North London of the same name which, oddly, is the home of a disproportionate number of the city’s musicians. (Maybe that’s why it’s being immortalized in a song title?) It’s a great song, with a novel – but strange – saxophone interlude with Taylor scatting the melody. The thudding drums of “Beginners” mars an otherwise good song. You’d wish you had a mixer in your hands so you could adjust the equalizer. Slow Club took risks with this album and are showing their true hearts in it; this album less innocent and less precious than their debut was. The strong songwriting is still there, but I think in terms of the execution, people are really going to love love love this or not care for it.

Paradise by Slow Club is available now from Moshi Moshi.

Track Listing
01. Two Cousins
02. If We’re Still Alive
03. Never Look Back
04. When I’m Waking
05. Hackney Marsh
06. Beginners
07. You, Earth or Ash
08. Gold Mountain
09. The Dog
10. Horses Jumping

The third album from English folk songbird Laura Marling is called A Creature I Don’t Know and the approach this time around seems to be a mature one (like Marling’s second, I Speak Because I Can) but more raw and back to basics, more similar to Marling’s 2008 debut and Mercury Prize-nominated album Alas I Cannot Swim. Take, for instance, the opening track “The Muse.” A fast folk guitar, honky tonk piano, and drum brushes were adopted for this song, and the overall vibe is very laid back. Too laid back I think: Marling’s voice is jazzy, and it’s not really the best to showcase Marling’s otherwise beautiful singing voice. Check out “Don’t Ask Me Why” and “All My Friends” for clear evidence of this and Marling’s mastery of songwriting. The only problem I see with this album is that it is uneven in song quality.

The lead single for A Creature I Don’t Know is “Sophia,” which begins with spare guitar chords and a dry vocal from Marling. With beautiful backing singers harmonizing perfectly with her, it’s so gentle, as if you were in a boat going down a gentle river. But this doesn’t last long: confusingly two-thirds into the song, you are jolted back into reality when the song turns Mumford and Sons-ized. It’s a knee-slapper, folks. The first couple times I heard this song this summer on British radio, I was really unhappy with it because Marling is such a talented woman, I felt like she sold out trying to make it more radio-friendly. The song has grown on me since I’ve seen the video for the song (watch it below) because it feels less contrived when you see her and her band playing it in a church. The video is a nice preview of her upcoming tour at home in the UK, as she will be playing churches across the country.

“Salinas” appears to be a nod to John Steinbeck (the Nobel Prize-winning author’s hometown) and possibly his most famous work The Grapes of Wrath. The song speaks of strong women and questions of morality and mortality. Heavy stuff. Then again, no one ever said folk music was for the weak-hearted. Also see “The Beast,” which may be a reference to Satan and viewing sex as a sin. The instrumentation is probably the hardest we’re going to get from Marling – unless she does a complete 180 and completely gives up folk for hard rock, which I highly doubt – and while there have been aggressive tracks like “Devil’s Spoke” from her in the past, this one is a definite ratcheting up on the rockiness.

Unfortunately, if you’re more of a rock than a folk fan like me, the album plods along instead of continuing in a jaunty fashion. Things can get a little…well…boring. Marling is 21 now, has 3 albums under her belt, and has had two high profile relationships with fellow musicians Charlie Fink (Noah and the Whale) and Marcus Mumford. The question now is, how will Marling change as the years go on?

A Creature I Don’t Know will be released in the U.S. on September 12 on Ribbon Records. Catch Marling on tour in North America this month, starting on September 17 in San Francisco. The opener for the tour is Alessi’s Ark, another amazing female English singer/songwriter.

Track Listing
01. The Muse
02. I Was Just a Card
03. Don’t Ask Me Why
04. Salinas
05. The Beast
06. Night After Night
07. My Friends
08. Rest in the Bed
09. Sophia
10. All My Rage

Tour Dates
Sept 17 – Bimbo’s 365 Club / San Francisco
Sept 18 – Masonic Temple / Los Angeles
Sept 20 – Troubadour / Los Angeles
Sept 22 – Lincoln Hall / Chicago
Sept 23 – Great Hall / Toronto
Sept 24 – Corona / Montreal
Sept 25 – Brighton Music Hall / Boston
Sept 27 – Sixth & I Historic Synagogue / Washington, DC
Sept 28 – Webster Hall / New York City

Laura Marling: website | myspace

August 30, 2011 saw Butch Walker and the Black Widows release their first album with Dangerbird Records – The Spade – and if the opening notes are any indication, this is a partnership destined for greatness. I had a huge smile on my face by the time I was 15 seconds into “Bodegas and Blood.”  I’ll try not to go all fangirl while I’m writing this review, but it’s hard for me to contain how happy this album made me. Walker is known for his pop sensibility and high snark quotient when it comes to his song-writing and this album upholds that reputation. Walker beautifully blends his classic sense of humor with an alt-country edge swirled around in a melting pot of great hooks, great harmonies from the Black Widows and lots of potential singalog oohs and ahhs. Those fans looking for the introspective side of Butch that we saw in last years I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart will have to adjust to the high-energy hooks abounding throughout The Spade.

The first single, “Summer of ’89″ leads the listener down a path of nostalgia for his bygone days with several references to growing up in Georgia that would feel just as at home on his first solo release Left of Self-Centered. Classic observances of the innocence of youth such as “Nobody knew Bryan Adams wasn’t cool/The TV just told me he was” take those of us who had our own summer of ’89 down a path of memories, which are a great accompaniment to the record as a whole. We’ve all made fun of our past at one point or another and Walker does it with his usual flair for storytelling and catchy pop tunes. Walker’s ability to write a hook is still strong with standout tracks such as “Bodegas and Blood,” “Every Single Body Else,” and “Bullet Belt” that are sure to satisfy all of the “rocker” Walker fans that are looking for another “My Way,” while tracks like “Closest Thing To You I’m Gonna Find” and  “Sweethearts” will satisfy the fans looking for the tender side from “Letters.”

The truth is that there’s a little bit of something for every type of Butch Walker fan on this record. The rockers, the popists, the folkies. Walker is blending his mastery of many different styles and doing it very, very well. The Spade is sure to become a summer favorite for many fans, and I’m sure will be blasted at full volume out many a rolled-down window well into fall because of the fun oozing out of this record from Walker and his band. There’s even silly Black Widow banter to prove that this band has just as much fun making this music as we do listening to it. Butch’s band, made up of Chris Unck, Fran Capitanelli and Jake Sinclair, have brought their music to a new level and I’m glad that we get to go along on the ride. The number of oohs and ahhs on this record are sure to drive lots of crowd singalongs during the upcoming tour. And I’ll be singing along at the top of my lungs.

Track Listing:

1. Bodegas and Blodd
2. Every Single Body Else
3. Summer of ’89
4. Sweethearts
5. Day Drunk
6. Synthesizers
7. Dublin Crow
8. Closest Thing To You I’m Gonna Find
9. Bullet Belt
10. Suckerpunch

By Rosie Judd

Last.fm is a website I’ve used extensively in building my music collection. I’ve discovered some of my favourite bands there. And based on my general music tastes and most played artists, The Drums is on my list of recommended bands. Seriously, they always pop up. So because this website I so dearly trust told me that I’d like this band, I wanted to love their newest album Portamento so much. I really did.

I gave it several listens to see if I’d like it even more the second time, the third time. But every time, it was as forgettable as the last. Not that I wanted to turn it off. That’s definitely not the case. The album isn’t bad. But it’s not good. It’s just there. It’s stale. Sadly it fades into the background of all the Bloc Partys, Two Door Cinema Clubs, Mystery Jets, Maccabees and all those who came before them in the endless sea of surfy, synthy dance rock.

And I know my synthy dance rock. I’ve seen We Are Scientists seven times in four different states.

The problem with the Drums’ newest effort is that it’s trying too hard to be safe, to fit in with those types of albums. In this day and age, to stand out is to be avante garde, progressive. It’s one thing to be refreshing and reminiscent of prior decades, but to make retro work for you, you have to either do something different with it, or do it really really well.

The Drums started the album off with a rather hollow introductory song. “Book of Revelations” features a monotonous melody, rather nasally vocals, and a guitar line that sounds like an electric guitar that’s unplugged.

Sadly, after that most of the songs flow together in one forgettable indie movie soundtrack. Probably the worst of them is “Please Don’t Leave,” which like the title, sounds whiney and a bit annoying. I seriously can’t get over the sound of the empty electric guitar. Maybe it will sound different live. I was planning on seeing them on their upcoming tour because I know the drummer they’re touring with, but now I’m not so sure about that.

The album’s one saving grace is the charming harmonies from the multiple vocalists. Especially on the fast-paced and quite catchy “Money,” the harmonies exemplify the 80s-esque New Wave feel of the album.

Portamento is minimalist, and a tad sad in some places, but while droning – it makes sense within The Drums career. Hopefully it’s one of those sophomore slump things, because I want to believe in this band. I want them to push through, especially since earlier in the summer they almost broke up. And it could be that Portamento was what came of that – but not in the best way.

Track listing

1. “Book of Revelation”
2. “Days”
3. “What You Were”
4. “Money”
5. “Hard to Love”
6. “I Don’t Know How to Love”
7. “Searching for Heaven”
8. “Please Don’t Leave”
9. “If He Likes It Let Him Do It”
10. “I Need a Doctor”
11. “In the Cold”
12. “How It Ended”

Visit http://thedrums.com/

The Germans are coming, the Germans are coming! Brandt Brauer Frick, the German trio who has been bringing their unusual blend of classical elements and minimal techno to speakers across Europe, will be releasing their hotly anticipated second album, Mr. Machine, in the U.S. on October 25 on !K7 Records.

The band – Daniel Brandt, Jan Brauer, Paul Frick – have been working hard to reinvent their live performance by eschewing the programmed computers that defined their 2010 debut You Make Me Real and have expanded to a ten-piece live line-up for an upcoming American tour this fall. The Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble tour of America begins on October 24 in Minneapolis and finishes in Los Angeles on November 12. To get an idea of what the BBF experience is going to be like, watch the performance video for their song “Bop” below.

Tour Dates
Oct 24 – Cedar Cultural Center / Minneapolis
Oct 27 – Glasslands / Brooklyn
Oct 28 – Red Palace / Washington, DC
Oct 29-30 – Moogfest / Asheville, NC
Oct 30 – 529 / Atlanta
Oct 31 – Back Booth / Orlando
Nov 01 – Club Down Under @ FSU / Tallahassee
Nov 03 – Prophet Bar / Dallas
Nov 04-06 – Fun Fun Fun Fest / Austin
Nov 11 – Rickshaw Stop / San Francisco
Nov 12 – Luckman Fine Arts Complex / Los Angeles

Brandt Brauer Frick: website | myspace

The great thing about most debut albums? A band can go balls to the wall and give it everything they’ve got and want to give, because they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. This definitely describes the Static Jacks‘ first album length offering to the world, If You’re Young. Despite the fact that the band hails from New Jersey, they sound more like the Libertines than Bruce Springsteen. They mix anarchic punk, the angst of youth, and remarkably accomplished instrumentation to create a really engaging sound.

My first introduction to the quartet was their impressive opening set in support of one of my current English rock band favorites, the Futureheads, in June 2010. I remember hearing them let rip onstage at the Black Cat and thinking, yep, I know exactly why the Futureheads chose them for support. While they must certainly have had different musical upbringings (the Static Jacks are very young: when I saw them, they all had Xs on the backs of their hands), I imagine the two bands’ mindsets are pretty similar: make it loud, make it powerful, and make it fun.

If You’re Young is, from what I can tell, a pretty good distillation of the band’s frenetic energy in live performance. Some of the songs are as chaotic as beloved Ramones numbers from the ’70s that should appeal to people who think American guitar rock is dead. (It’s not. There are plenty of indie bands in America. They’re just not getting played on the radio. Thanks Kings of Leon.) Opening track “Defend Rosie” tells you straight out from the gate that you are not dealing with just any band. The Static Jacks are a force to be reckoned with. “Girl Parts,” another high octane track, features added vocals from Ceci Gomez from Brooklyn band Beast Make Bomb.

But there are more melodic numbers that show off the band’s songwriting and musical ability. “Into the Sun” is a great example of this, with great guitar work and lead singer Ian Devaney‘s powerful vocal delivery. Other contagious tunes include “My Parents Lied,” a song I immediately picked up on live because of the infectious handclapping and minor key melody, and “Mercy, Hallelujah” and “Relief,” which both remind me of, dare I say it, the Boss. (I know. To some of you out there, that’s flat-out heresy. But I’m saying it because I want you to give this album a chance.) “Blood Pressure,” with its great singalong of “I’m afraid of the future / I want to share it with you” is oddly touching: as Devaney said in a recent interview about the album, “It’s mostly saying ‘if you’re young – or if you ever were – you’ll know where we’re coming from with these songs.’ These are pretty universal experiences that most people experience from their late teens and early twenties. It’s such a transition period, figuring out what you want to do and where you want to go. Youthful anxiety, I suppose.”

There are some surprising moments on here as well. “Sonata (Maybe We Can Work It Out)” is the band’s attempt at a tender ballad, with Strokes-like guitars, but its “partner” song, “Walls (We Can’t Work It Out)”, brings things back up tempo with feverish intensity. Considering their relatively young age, the Static Jacks have managed to put together a nice collection of hard rocking, memorable songs that show off their talents, talents that are sure only to grow. Catch the band live this fall as alongside New Yorkers the Postelles, they open for English rockers the Wombats. Will I be there for the opening night of the tour? You bet.

The Static Jacks’ debut album, If You’re Young, will be released in North America on August 30 on Fenway Recordings.

Track Listing
01. Defend Rosie
02. Girl Parts
03. Into the Sun
04. My Parents Lied
05. Sonata (Maybe We Can Work Out)
06. Walls (We Can’t Work It Out)
07. Mercy, Hallelujah
08. Blood Pressure
09. This is Me Dancing
10. Relief
11. It’s Such a Shame
12. Drano-Ears

Tour Dates
Oct 21 – 9:30 Club / Washington, DC*
Oct 22 – Johnny Brenda’s / Philadelphia*
Oct 24 – Jefferson Theatre / Charlottesville, VA*
Oct 25 – Local 506 / Carrboro, NC*
Oct 26 – Loft / Atlanta*
Oct 29 – Fitzgeralds / Houston*
Oct 30 – Parish / Austin*
Nov 01 – Granada / Dallas*
Nov 02 – Record Bar / Kansas City*
Nov 04 – Outland / Columbus*
Nov 05 – Subterranean / Chicago*
Nov 07 – Varsity Theater / Minneapolis*
Nov 10 – Wonder Ballroom / Portland*
Nov 11 – Venue / Vancouver*
Nov 12 – Crocodile / Seattle*
*opening for the Wombats

The Static Jacks: website | myspace | @ Black Cat

Slave Ambient is the second  album from Philadelphia’s The War on Drugs, and the followup to last year’s Future Weather EP. That EP is important to mention since it was released because Slave Ambient was taking longer to record than anticipated. Slave Ambient boasts new versions of two songs from Future Weather, and another of the songs is predated by an instrumental from the EP. This is all fine. Slave Ambient is it’s own entity, made richer by the hints that were given about what was to come.

The songs on the album meander, and like any War on Drugs record it takes a few listens for the songs to distinguish themselves. The songs are hazy, and jammy, and often completely spaced. It occasionally sounds like a stoner’s dream record, but it’s just as good blind sober.

Not to say this album doesn’t have fantastic eye opening moments, because it does. The first track, “Best Night” opens the album with a general theme that seems to run through the album. “I believe that I’ve been cursed” sings songwriter Adam Granduciel through a mass of freewheeling guitars and keyboards. He continues: “It’s you I hope survive without fighting.” It’s a song about struggling through the frothy bullshit of life, while trying to ignore the fact that you’re doomed anyways. It’s heavy, heady stuff, and the musical atmosphere suits it perfectly.

A new version of Brothers from Future Weather is next, and it’s at least as powerful as the earlier version. Granduciel sings about wondering where his friends went, and why they didn’t take him. It’s all very transitory. The narrator looks around, isn’t sure if he likes what he sees, or where he’s been, but he’s reminiscing nonetheless. “My life is filled with fear, I can’t believe in the truth.” It’s a little terrifying in a way.

Following that is “I Was There,” one of the album’s standout tracks. It’s a ramshackle waltz, breezy, and piano driven, filled with noodling guitars  and Dylan-esque vocals. It winds its way through like a slow train rumbling past some obscure mid-west city.

The best thing here is “It’s Your Destiny.” “I’ve been struggling,” Granduciel sings through guitar and keyboard loops, and we’re right there struggling with him, doing our damnedest to avoid whatever  fate the world has in store for us.

The album continues to float through a few more songs, and short instrumental pieces, before the closer “Blackwater Falls.” It’s a mostly acoustic song, similar to “Barrel of Batteries,” which closed the first War on Drugs album, Wagonwheel Blues. This song is much deeper, however. “There is a train we take downtown,” Granduciel sings. You get the feeling of people hanging out on the outskirts of town. The narrator asks someone to remember him, and he sings about “the smell of defeat,” and how “there is no way to carve your righteous path of rage.” It’s very melancholy, the song is loss, and leaving, and lyrically unsure, but the music is perfect. Once the electric instruments kicks in the song moves at an assured pace, leaving just before it outstays its welcome.

Slave Ambient doesn’t have any monster classic songs like “Arms Like Boulders” from Wagonwheel Blues, and there isn’t an eight minute drone piece like Future Weather’s best song “The History of Plastic.”  These are missed at first, but soon enough the album reveals itself as its own thing. It’s one long jam, best heard as a whole. It takes a while for the songs to differentiate themselves as their own entities but that’s not a bad thing.  The production is incredibly layered. A listener can spend a lot of time picking out strange chord progressions, and other odd noises. This is easily one of of 2011’s best records, and is not to be missed.

Tracklist:

Best Night
Brothers
I was There
Your Love is Calling my Name
The Animator
Come to the City
Come for It
Its your Destiny
City Reprise #12
Baby Missiles
Original Slave
Black Water Falls