And You Will Know Us By the Trail Of Dead - Worlds Apart
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.
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.
(Interscope Records)