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And
You Will Know Us By the Trail Of Dead
Worlds Apart
(Interscope)
And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead have managed
to simultaneously confuse and intrigue by blurring the lines
of the genres they so artfully bounce in and out of. Their sometimes
proclaimed magnum opus, Source Tags & Codes proved
to be a smooth transition from Merge Records to major label
Interscope. They embraced the style of predecessors like Sonic
Youth in terms of the avant garde guitar work by Kevin Allen,
where there is a fine line between melody and dissonance, teamed
with busy yet tactful drumming of Jason Reece, and Conrad Keely's
intelligent lyrics and display of vocal range, and were backed
with enough money for all of this to sound clean and polished.
They had a good thing going for them. As expected, this 2002
release was warmly accepted, getting rave reviews with most
ratings surpassing 9 out of 10. …Trail of Dead had a lot
of expectations to live up to for their next project. So did
they buckle under the pressure? Well, maybe. They went on to
release Worlds Apart, a puzzling ego trip for the band.
You are bombarded with a haunting, operatic overture of an intro
with "Ode to Isis," where you can barely make out
the names of Egyptian kings being chanted. I would expect this
sort of thing from an Opeth album, but not from them. This might
leave you a little mystified, but piques your interest as to
what can follow this. The title track "Worlds Apart"
mocks the music industry for being full of unoriginal carbon
copies. Lines like "They all sound the same to me / Neither
much worse nor much better" are belted out facetiously
by Keely who strangely sounds like a more falsetto version of
Mike Ness. This track is a generic rock song, easily replaceable,
yet it bears the oh-so clever moniker "Worlds Apart."
We are all supposed to see the farce in this. There's enough
music out there for us to roll our eyes at for sucking the life
out of creativity. We don't need a band that we depend on for
their originality to remind us of this by parodying the kind
of things we usually try to avoid. The majority of the remainder
of the album mirrors "The Rest Will Follow"- a half
heartfelt attempt at writing poignant, introspective lyrics
sang with a guttural howl which just fails to make a deep connection
to the listener because they have to sit through all too simplistic
guitar riffs and drumming, and sleepy bass lines. However, "To
Russia My Homeland" manages to be a perfect backdrop for
waltzing at a masquerade ball, so it stands out quite significantly.
"Caterwaul" hoards the remnants of what ...Trail of
Dead were on previous albums, and is probably the most substantial
track on the album.
There are bursts of filler throughout the duration of the record
that are comprised of things such as children cheering, interludes
similar to "Ode to Isis", spooky violin, and bouncy
piano- …Trail of Dead attempt at eclecticism which is
just overdone. It doesn't aid in making Worlds Apart
a more solid album, though it might just give you a confused
look on your face. It’s just not appropriate because it
accompanies tracks that are just catchy pop rock melodies more
than anything else. They had the freedom to be progressive and
experimental because they could never be tied down to one genre,
but they have celebrated this to excess.
If this is your first taste of …Trail of Dead, you may
gladly accept into your collection, and place it right next
to your Death Cab for Cutie, Bright Eyes, and Sparta records.
If you've heard Madonna or Source Tags & Codes,
you'll wonder what happened to that experimental, artsy Texas
quintet you bobbed your head to when your copy of Sonic Youth's
Washing Machine started to skip.
Reviewed by
Alayne Wilinsky
February 9th, 2005 |
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