Published on Jan 3, 2005
There are few things in rock and roll I appreciate more than
really good harmony vocals. Sure, there are moments when the raw
sound of a single voice growling through the night air is the right
choice, but the unique potency of lovingly arranged and
enthusiastically sung harmony vocals has been a key ingredient of
rock and roll acts from the Everly Brothers all the way down
through Evan and Jaron.
This is the first thing that comes to mind listening to the
BoDeans’ new disc
Resolution as the band’s co-masterminds Sam Llanas and Kurt
Neumann harmonize beautifully on Neumann’s rollicking anthem “(We
Can) Live,” alternating lines between Neumann solo and the pair
singing together.
“(We Can) Live” is also emblematic of this album’s emphasis on
bigger, bolder, more anthemic songs. Though the BoDeans scored
their biggest chart hit with the wide-open jangle-fest “Closer To
Free” (off 1993’s
Go Slow Down), the song was less than typical of their
generally thoughtful, literate roots-rock.
This time around, after a long layoff for solo albums, a
greatest hits collection, and a thankfully successful search for a
new label, the BoDeans are feeling expansive once again. The first
four songs on this disc are all big, loose, energetic rockers —
not to mention fun. Yes, cuts like Llanas’s brooding rocker
“Marianne” lean to the serious side, but exuberant numbers like
Neumann’s “Wild World” are full of welcome, playful touches that
display the joy the guys poured into this album.
Among the other things the BoDeans excel at is using accordion,
mandolin, Hammond organ and the occasional loop to add sweet highs
and bright textures to their basic guitar-bass-drums arrangements.
Case in point: the bluesy dynamics of “Two Souls” and the 4/4
backbeat of “Wild World” would sound only half as sweet in the
absence of Michael Ramos’s accordion.
This album also features some of Neumann’s most aggressive,
out-front electric guitar work, and it’s tremendous stuff, full of
both intensity and nuance. Llanas points to an example of how this
affected the disc on the band’s Web site; his own “Nobody Loves Me”
started out life as a slow country ballad, until Neumann got ahold
of it, ran a sinuous electric lead through it and turned it into a
steady-burning revelation, one of the most genuinely passionate
love songs I heard in 2004.
Other notes: “If It Makes You” is a terrific album-opener full
of vision and urgency; “Slipping Into You” is surely the prettiest
song ever written about driving around New Orleans; “Said ‘Hello'”
is giddy fun; and the brilliantly-crafted, Springsteen-esque “617”
brims with potent details that resonate emotionally.
Listening to
Resolution, it’s hard not to conclude that Neumann and
Llanas belong together, singing songs of purpose and passion. On
this album, they re-establish their musical partnership with a disc
of buoyant rockers and thoughtful story-songs that will stay with
you long after the music fades.
Resolution is, quite simply,
one of 2004’s best.