The Builders & the Butchers – Salvation is a Deep Dark Well
The Builders’ debut is still one of the most loved records in our house. I love it, Mrs. Toad loves it and everyone we play it to loves it. So, erm, where the hell does a band go from there?
Well, to be frank, I don’t like this as much as their first record, but then that was never going to happen. But after listening to it plenty of times through now, I do still think it’s an excellent album. The Builders & the Butchers started off thinking of themselves as a funeral band, and those themes are all over their songs – Down in This Hole, Vampire Lake, Devil Town, you get the picture.
The music matches this kind of perverted folk apocalyptica, with the rabid funeral march thumping of dual drummers, mandolin and banjo played as if they were percussion instruments, and, finally, waves of brass and strings bringing swelling grandeur to add the icing to the cake. It’s big, yet ramshackle and unbalanced enough to feel like a three-wheeled cart runaway down a hill, just waiting to veer tragically off course and smash into a million pieces.
So where does the album fall slightly short of its predecessor? Well there are a couple of things I would point out. Firstly, there are very few changes of pace on this record to match the slow-clap, oddly jolly funeral march of Down to the Gallows and others, like The Night Parts 1 & 2, from their debut. The Wind Has Come is a brilliant exception, but a bit more of this kind of shift of atmosphere would perhaps have been a good thing.
Secondly, while there’s energy, there isn’t as much venom as before. Bottom of the Lake and Spanish Death Song brim with so much overflowing rage that you get the impression the band performed them whilst chained up in a basement just to keep the public safe. There are songs on this which have a similar air to them, but the recording hasn’t quite captured that reckless fury which made the previous album so intoxicating.
Anyhow, nit-picking whingeing aside, this is still a fucking great album. They aren’t exactly a folk band as such, but I’m not sure how else you would describe them. And they could blow the fucking wigs off almost any folk-related band I could name – in fact the only group I can think to compare them to, in terms of hell-for-leather excitement, would be the Pogues. And there are few higher accolades than that, in my view.
The Builders & the Butchers – Barcelona
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The Builders & the Butchers – The Wind Has Come
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This, the new The Dodos, the new Felice Brothers, the new Bowerbirds, the new Deer Tick, the new yadda yadda yadda… I think 2009 is going to be a year, so far at least, filled with disappointing follow-ups.
i am new to this band and have never heard the previous album so it quite amazes me that the word ‘disappointing’ could be attributed to this record.
personally, i love it.
I’ve not heard this yet but loved the first album, I also really likr this artwork.
I love both albums, I haven’t made my mind up about which ones best, and I might not bother trying.
It’s a bit like looking at this photo and wondering which one’s best, left or right?..
They’re both magnificent.
There seems to be slightly more polish to the production on this new album. Not to suggest they’ve headed off into Celine Dion MOR territory, but just a touch more depth to the sound as you might expect one step further along their career, possibly with more advanced recording facilities available.
Barcelona is a fabulous track, the layers of mariachi horns that swirl and build during the chorus are sublime.
I see where Euan & NineBall are coming from, & sure, there are nice production twists on the new album & some of the tracks are brilliant. Overall, though, & as much as it pains me to agree, in comparison to the s/t LP this one’s definitely disappointingly *meh*
it took me a few a few listens but this has really grown on me and now i would say its as good as the first. maybe not the same immediate catchyness as bottom of the lake for example but the production is far more interesting. not dissapointing in the slightest. felice bros now thats disappointing. this is easily my favourite band right now. no-one comes close.
So far I enjoy this new one less than the debut. As Matthew said, there’s no Spanish Death Song here to blow my socks off, and the tunes are a bit samey. Still and all, I like it and think it’ll translate well live. Got tickets to see them next Tuesday night, with Illinois as the opener. Can’t wait.
Aye, DC, so far none of the follow-ups can hold a candle to The Hazards of Love. But I have high hopes for the Young Republic’s new one.
YR is sounding good, so far.
I’m kind of with DC I think and C&B I think. I love large bits of this album, but a little more variation would do some good, I think.
Also, their last one had a couple of my favourite damn songs of all time on it, and you only get a small handful of those at the best of times, so it feels a bit mean comparing them.
I know what you mean though, DC, I don’t get the same thrill from this album as a whole.
Two points: I will never be as good a reviewer as you, Matthew, because it is exactly as you say, the mandolin and banjo as percussion instrument that sets this band apart from any folk band I’ve heard bar O’death. That, you hit on the head.
And, here’s my opinion on comparing two records: aside from glaringly obvious decisions to not give a fuck, most records are good – and it depends on where we are, not on where they are as to how we rate them. Will I ever experience my first listen of “Born to Run” again? No, surely not. But that doesn’t mean that everything the Boss did after that was crap. It’s just that it was a time and place that can’t be repeated, no use in comparing anything to it.
I only casually listened to the first B&B album. I studied this one and found it to be wonderful and gorgeous, as is. Dark and funeral and gothic, it’s everything I expected and more from my scant knowledge of them. So I’m left quite happy with this record
but, of course, I’ll allow you your disappointment if you wish xoxox
Er, make that most follow up records, god knows there’s plenty bad records out there! Haha
I’m with tart all the way.
Well I don’t disagree in most senses. Had I never heard the first album my reaction to this would presumably be very different.
There’s still nothing to shake your bones quite like Spanish Death Song played so loud your teeth rattle though.
Not quite sure why they didn’t put When It Rains on this record. Not that’s a romper stomper. I know it’d been floating around the web for a while, and maybe they just felt it was too far removed from their newer material? Anyway, shame. I fully expect that tune to leave me breathless live.
That should be “Now that’s a romper stomper.”
I’ve just bought this off iTunes for £4.49! And no I don’t need no bloody artwork…..can’t wait to listen to it and disagree with all of yous
Ah, Chutters. You never fucking change.
the voice is a little like John Lydon don’t you all think?
wobbly?