Rock Plaza Central – At The Moment Of Our Most Needing, Or If Only They Could Turn Around, They Would Know They Weren’t Alone
This is a straighforward, Americana-flavoured indie rock album. And it’s very good. There’s something of a Western aspect to the roll of the lyrics – almost like a desert album accidentally fallen into the hands of a city indie band. There is also some pretty lonesome fiddle screeching going on at times, squarely in Spaghetti Western territory, but whilst they flirt with this aesthetic, they never seem to quite give themselves over to it entirely.
Apparently their previous album, Are We Not Horses, was something of a smash hit amongst the discerning hipsters of the internet, but I’ve never heard it, myself. This means I don’t have that particular baggage to deal with when listening to the new stuff, which I suppose both liberates my reaction, and possibly skews it just a little too.
Accordion, tumpet and Morricone fiddle are as close as you’re going to get to musical catnip for someone like me, particularly when matched to a keening, slightly strained voice which is frequently full of anguish. It still sounds like a basic indie rock rhythm to me, for the most part, which is what prevents this being an album which I would pigeonhole as Americana.
It’s like a mosaic, in some ways, composed of shifting textures, some more abstract than others, from which on occasion emerge steady rhythmic directions, some infectiously catchy choruses and the odd flourish of instrumentation. For the most part this produces a wonderfully fluid record, with an intriguingly shifting emphasis, but on occasion they slightly miss. Sometimes the rhythm gets going, and you can almost hear something catchy trying to break through, but not quite doing so. At times like this I can find the record slightly less arresting than at others, but this is pretty rare in what is for the most part a consistent and excellent album.
Rock Plaza Central – (Don’t You Believe the Words of) Handsome Men
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Rock Plaza Central – O Lord, How Many are My Foes?
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These songs are entirely my cup of tea, ta Matthew, I’m away to investigate further.
I’m with Dav.
These are really good, thanks.
I’m not sure I completely agree with this bit because I can’t see how it applies to the two songs above:
Nevertheless, as I’m not inclined to split hairs when we’re clearly in overall agreement about these guys; I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt this time and presume you’re aware that sentence is utter tosh and you’ve simply forgotten to delete it from the review.
You’ll give me the benefit of the doubt will you? Well how very kind, I was hoping this review might meet your approval, but not confident enough to actually expect such a happy outcome. Please feel free to come around and offer your approval or otherwise of my choice of t-shirts, my hairstyle and how I have decorated my living room, should you get the chance – I would be honoured. Alternatively, just fuck off you pompous dick.*
Whilst a lot of the instrumentation – the flourishes of the brass and some of the playing style of the strings – come straight out of more classic Americana, the rhythm section seem to be playing more in an indie rock style. This means that for all there’s a lot of Americana in the songs, that underlying structure means that it still sounds like an indie rock record, in the sense that that is what I found myself instinctively identifying it as on first listen.
In other words, despite the instrumentation, I’d compare it more to Camper Van Beethoven than The Felice Brothers.
*For those in any doubt. This is actually a joke. Not entirely a joke, but a joke nevertheless. He can still fuck off though.
* Added smiley for internet syntax compliance:
Good.
I’m pleased that you agree with me.
Sorry Dylan but I got that (and agree) first time round. What a smug little bastard I am.
my head hurts…did you really think this?
i just thought it sounds bloody good!!!
and this made me fucking laugh out loud!!!!!!
“smiley face goes here”
“Smiley face goes here” really is the internet equivalent of those great, big children’s program exaggerated winks, isn’t it. It’s needed sometimes though, but it does feel so fucking silly.
In terms of what I think when listening to albums, no, it’s rarely that detailed immediately. Generally though, as soon as I start to write things down I go back and try and describe the music, or my reaction to it, and hope that helps people either know what to expect from the album or at least understand why I do or don’t like something.
Actually, I like that Handsome Men track enough to stop being a dick for a minute and elaborate.
While, in my opinion, the rhythm certainly does resemble something you might commonly find in modern indie-rock, I think the style of play actually predates that considerably. One could definitely draw comparisons with classic Americana going right back to the the Laurel Canyon / Sunset Strip scene of the late sixties where country, rock n’ roll and psychedelia crossed over when people like Buffalo Springfield and Gram Parsons (Possibly more into the Burritos or late-Byrds – but I said I wouldn’t split hairs) started consuming heroic quantities of mind-altering substances, through to their mainstream cousins like early Eagles or early-American-period Fleetwood Mac, and other influential acts of the period; Lynyrd Skynyrd, Creedence etc.
Dylan in sensible comment shocker.
Thank fuck I was sitting down when I read that.
And I think you’re spot on actually. Imagine that.
uh…. on what track of ANY Mac, Skynyrd, or CCR production is there the fluttering of a violin or spanish sounding guitar or whatever that is at the beginning of this song? Or the repetition of the phrase over and over for that matter? The emphasis in the lyrics I’ll grant you, and certainly the acoustic harmonies, but this is all modern to my ears. Perhaps a modern take on those classic rockers but no way is this a retro sound, to me. It is all modern folk-inspired and polished to my ears, and there’s not a thing wrong with that, I like it very much. I like it more on the third listen than the first. It reminds me of something that I can’t put my finger on, but I’m sure it will come to me as I drive across town to the club where I left my freakin drivers license on Saturday while dancing like a mad woman to Prodigy. I’ll be back later to hear the abuse you all heap on me for this comment :p *insert sarcastic winky face here
oh and to be fair to Matthew, it is really difficult to come up with something to say about music after writing a few hundred of these things so try not to pick on his phrases too much, darlings! I sympathize, … go write your own blogs then come back and slag him off for pretentious sentences, if that’s what you were doing…
I am currently enjoying the second track.
And appreciate the first for its sentiment, but what really sold this to me was the pretentiously long album title. At 20 words it completely blows Le Loup’s ‘Throne…’ out of the water.
Thanks for the songage!
geeze that all came off harsh, didn’t mean it too. Matthew, when I hear the phrase Americana I always think people mean folk music. But maybe I’m just not thinking widely enough?
Voldermania – I have held myself back so many times from making sarcastic comments about the album title. Come on, people, is it really necessary? But the flip side of that is the excellent album from the Vancouver band called Women. And what did they call their album? Yes, ‘Women’ too. You try Googling that fucker!
Tarticles – I said that for all the embellishment on the top, the underlying rhythms were more straightforward. So you’re right, those bands didn’t use a lot of fiddle flourishes etc.., but I was talking about the foundations of the song, not the cherry on the top.
Makes a good first impression. The Handsome Men tune is top notch. It reminds me a lot of O’Death, but with a dash of Fairport Convention in the fiddles and DeVotchka in the horns. The Foes one sounds like a good Bonnie Prince Billy tune, and the horns make me think of the theme music to The Waltons. Comforting somehow.
O’death!!! Thank you C&B <3 and thanks for the giggle over the Waltons comment too.
Yeah, true Matthew, it was Dylan who made me go grumpily off in that direction.
I thought it was me he was trying to lure into grumpiness? Are you collateral damage?
C&B – I don’t think the whole album sounds much like O’Death, personally. Maybe I haven’t chosen the songs all that well, in that they may not be all that widely representative, but in general there is more straighforward indie rock than O’Death tend to produce.
Hmm… I wonder when fiddles and spanish guitars joined the rhythm section.
Must be an Americana thing.