Published on Jul 21, 2005
Either these four young guys from Deerfield, Illinois have got
elephant balls, or they just don’t know any better. P.S. I’m pretty
sure they know better.
There have been hundreds and hundreds of bands over the past 35
years that have listened to, learned from, looked up to and/or
longed to be more like the Beatles. They were, after all, the
single most influential group in the history of rock and roll, and
the originators of/inspirations for any number of musical trends
and genres that followed in their wake, from power-pop to
psychedelia.
But.
The Redwalls do not “sound like” or “pay homage to” or any other
half-assed phrase one might use to try to relate their style to the
Beatles. They freaking
channel them like a million-megawatt radio/time machine.
This album could be titled
Revolver II (The Next Generation), and no one would
blink.
The British invasion wall-of-guitars, the playful three-part
harmonies, the knowing nods to r&b rhythms, the occasional
headlong dive into soulful blues-shouter vocals… even the
detours into throbbing psychedelic pop, horns-and-strings accents
and earnest political statements. It’s all here, executed with a
casual brilliance that boggles the mind, because not only are these
four lads from the suburban Midwest, they’re barely out of high
school. Brothers Logan Baren (vocals & guitar) and Justin Baren
(bass & vocals) are 22 and 19, respectively; best pal Andrew
Langer (guitar & vocals) is 20; and new guy Ben Greeno (drums)
is 21. (And they say you can’t get a musical education in America
today!)
My favorite moments on this disc go by like a blur every time I
listen to it. But here are just a few: the instantly memorable
choruses of “Thank You” and “Building A Bridge”; the ebullient
dare-you-not-to-dance drive of “Love Her” and “It’s Alright”; the
dead-on acoustic protest song vibe of “Glory Of War”; and the truly
glorious, wailing “Twist And Shout” vocals deployed by Baren on the
blazing-fun closer “Rock And Roll.”
The first time through you’re dazzled by the audacity of the
sound — the repeated Lennonisms in Baren’s vocals, the
note-perfect retro arrangements, the giddy rock numbers seasoned
with Hammond organ and orchestral flourishes. Then on subsequent
spins you start listening to the songs themselves and find out
these guys really know what they’re doing. They aren’t imitators.
They are a band that has adopted the Beatles’ sonic template whole,
and applied their own considerable writing talents to the task of
making new music within it.
Nowhere is this clearer than on the one song where I really did
get the chills the first time I heard it. “Front Page” opens with
processed vocals that sound like Lennon speaking from beyond the
grave, whereupon Baren moves steadily through a somber lyric (“As
they talk about / Sixteen kids gone in a schoolyard / The papers
read / She shakes her head”) that sounds eerily like “A Day In The
Life 2005.” For that reason, part of me wanted to hate it, but I
couldn’t — it’s too good.
As a general rule, I want artists to show me something fresh and
new. Tribute bands just make me sad that the real thing isn’t still
around. And that ‘s the crux of the musical dilemma posed by
De Nova — is this album original? Not in the sense of
creating something the likes of which has never been seen or heard
before. But it certainly is original in the sense of accomplishing
something I’m not sure I’ve ever seen done this well before —
taking a familiar and famous sound and breathing fresh new life and
vibrancy into it. They won this jaded critic over to the point
where all I have left to say is: Meet The Redwalls.