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Rating: Recently, whenever someone asks me for a tip on a new band to listen to, I invariably mention ...Trail Of Dead, even though they are certainly not newcomers in the scene.
This is actually their fifth studio album, not to mention several singles and EPs, but as often happens, not many have noticed them yet. They will most likely remain a niche band, but this album, more than any other, has the possibility of bringing them into the light for a wider audience thanks to an undeniable pop-rock shift, a clear break in many ways from the past.
This shift had already made itself apparent largely with the previous album "Worlds Apart," perhaps their masterpiece, but with "So Divided", they have defined the future coordinates on which the Texan band will presumably move. The guitars have given up some space to brass, strings, and violins, the tempos have generally expanded, and the melodies have become more "pop"; we are faced with a sort of alchemy between the "cinematic" textures of Mercury Rev. and the indie-rock forays of the never too praised Motorpsycho.
A fitting example is the initial "Stand In Silence", a rock assault with an almost classical break. The formula repeats in other strong tracks of the album like "Sunken Dreams" and, above all, "Naked Sun", a gritty garage blues ala Mudhoney that takes off in the finale into majestic and dreamy psychedelia. But it is in the songs more purely "light" like the sweet and melancholic "Witch's Web" or the Brit-pop tinged title track that Trail of Dead humiliate the various successful bands like Oasis, Coldplay, and company.
Success that the band leader, Conrad Keely (author of the stunning artwork as always), and associates do not seem to crave much, as they put forward as a single the whimsical "Wasted State Of Mind" and then cover a "Gold Heart Mountain Top Queen Directory" by the semi-unknown yet brilliant Guided By Voices.
Ladies and gentlemen: there are rock bands capable of turning you inside out... it's the world that doesn't want them anymore.
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Other reviews
By Antmo
"It's as if the band from Austin set out to develop music starting from the arrangement of 'A Day in the Life' by the Beatles."
"Throughout the album, there isn’t a single feedback, not a larsen, a more pronounced dissonance, or a more pushed distortion: only melody, melodies indeed."
