Published on Mar 11, 2005
I don’t know if you could call it a trend just yet, but it’s at
least worth mentioning that two of the more intriguing entries
among the latest batch of indie-rock discs I’ve been listening to
recently play down the traditional rock and roll subject matter of
love and relationships in favor of more worldly, philosophical
lyrics.
Of course, once you’ve named your band The Bradbury Press, you
pretty much have to bring some substance to your game if you want
to be taken seriously.
Nobody’s laughing here. This Seattle-based quartet has created
an interesting, engaging, even thought-provoking album in
The Front. Building off an acoustic base in the manner of
Dave Matthews or early Counting Crows, the Press — Darren Golden
on vocals and acoustic guitar, Dave Brewer on lead guitar and
vocals, Travis Hartman on bass and Greg Garcia on drums — craft an
album’s worth of intelligent, tuneful roots-rock. The genre might
be labeled melodic Americana, basic guitar-bass-drums arrangements
with occasional piano and Hammond accents. There’s also a Michael
Stipe influence evident in the steely intensity of Golden’s lead
vocals.
Best of all, though, are the smart and sometimes wry lyrics of
tracks like “Dive,” in which the breaking-free Golden declares
(among other things) “I got tired of preachers who didn’t know what
the hell they were talking about.” Musically the song has a bit of
a Shawn Mullins feel with its spoken word verses telling an oblique
story full of symbolism and allegory before kicking into the
soaring, purposeful chorus “I’m gonna dive / To change my
life.”
Later on “Drown” offers a tight, dark little number whose dense,
exotic feel, double-time tempo and eerie melody reek of Dave
Matthews, complete with spidery Boyd Tinsley-ish picking and
tremendous vocal intensity on a downbeat lyric about “drowning in
the water” of loneliness.
For contrast, they follow with “Running Through My Mind,” a
superb, steady-building, beautiful mid-tempo love song that sounds
like acoustic R.E.M. crossed with early Jayhawks, and fits like a
comfy shirt. Brewer takes on lead vocal duties for a pair of
similarly upbeat tunes, “Better Day” and “Falling Up,” featuring
uplifting, lilting melodies that feel familiar but are brand
new.
Other notes: Jason Homey contributes some smoking electric banjo
(no, really, it’s very cool…) on the aptly-named “Country
Ditty,” bringing the band’s alt-country influences to the
forefront. “Ditty” and “Where Do We Go” are also perhaps the most
relationship-focused tunes here, albeit ones examining missed
connections and other misunderstandings.
“Domino,” one of the most interesting cuts here, plays on the
old sci-fi conceit explored in
Back To The Future,
The Butterfly Effect and a hundred short stories, about how
each small choice we make shapes and changes our entire future. “We
create tomorrow with every breath we take / Every choice is a
domino” goes the chorus of this brooding, well-crafted tale of fate
and consequence.
The occasional lyrical stumble aside — which I’d ascribe to
trying too hard —
The Front is a very strong album, a musical suite that runs
ribbons of melancholy through a steady undercurrent of optimism and
intelligence. This mature, perceptive disc left me feeling better
than when I started, and looking forward to hearing much more from
The Bradbury Press in the future.