-- Dead Meadow - Feathers | (Audio CD) MSRP $ 15.98 Amazon Price $ 15.98 Savings $ 0.00 | |  Release Date: 22 February, 2005, Matador Records
TRACK LISTING - Let`s Jump In
- Such Hawks Such Hounds
- Get Up On Down
- Heaven
- At Her Open Door
- Eyeless Gaze All Eye/Don`t Tell The Riverman
- Stacy`s Song
- Let It All Pass
- Through The Gates Of The Sleepy Silver Door
- Bonus Track 1
Usually ships in 24 hours | | | Heavy Feathers | This album is all about space. Not space in a `Hey, we sing about the cosmos and have a bunch of weird saltellite sounds everywhere,` but space as in wide open expanses. Where DM`s previous albums were dense and earthy, "Feathers" is airy and open and somehow a little bit higher in the sky than its previous efforts.
Case in point is opener `Let`s Jump In.` It`s starts off sounding like DM in that the wah pedal is in full effect, but you`d have a hard time distinguishing four musicians. Then about 2/3 through a teriffic and sudden shift comes in and Jason Simon`s vocals take a back seat to some serious soloing over a two chord dirge in the background. In that respect, the song is quintessential DM.
But DM touch on several different styles here. `Such Hawks Such Hounds` is a breezy-yet-forboding jaunt; `Get up on Down` starts with a shimmering guitar crescendo, settles down into a lightly-layered movement for a while, threatens to disintigrate entirely then comes full circle at the end. Lead single `At Her Open Door` is nothing more than a pop song with two interlaced guitar figures, but it doesn`t sound forced.
There`s no mistaking this for anything but DM, but the band has infused different elements into their trademark style that was delectable but becoming staid.
This version of `Heaven` pales to the one on "Shivering King" but fits well here; `Eyeless Gaze/Riverman` resurrects classic DM in a two-part suite; `Stacy`s Song` dabbles in some of the Jesus and Mary Chain`s quieter moments and sounds like nothing DM have done before, but it suits the band well.
That`s why this review emerges so long after the release: This is the band`s growth spurt and maturation, and you can`t apsorb a piece of work like that in one or two or 30 listens. But give this album even six or eight spins and its subtle nuances will grab you.
In that regard `Let it all Pass` may be the apex on this album -- it starts off sounding like some other songs on "Feathers" but then mixes those elements with class DM as the song chugs to a close. The drum circle thunder of `Through the Gates` would be a throwaway, save that it segues seamlessly into one of the band`s live versions of `Sleepy Silver Door,` and a flawless version at that.
"Feathers" my not immediately entice old fans or newcomers, but over time it emerges as another musical gem from one the best bands around. | | | | my favorite dead meadow | | after seeing them live with wolfmother I`m a believer! great to listen when smoking, for sure there lightest album and most melodic, right up my alley. Also great for long car drives. | | | | Lethargic but never soporific: languid but lethal doses | I wanted to advise you not to take the 30 second samples you can hear on-line as representative of the whole album. Like LPs used to be more often than now, this deceptively low-key disc is meant to be heard as a whole. I had resisted buying this for a while since I was not bowled over by the snippets. The 10 tracks for the most part remain languorous, but not enervating. They are very much suited for a morning after the night before mood.
The last song, for example, takes its sweet time stretching out; the one before gives a bit of industrial whir; track 5 reminds me of Led Zep III`s folkier moments; track 2 of the blur of folk and rock in late 60s Britain, and other songs have hints of very early Verve, Brian Jonestown Massacre, and a blend of shoegazer`s trippier incarnations into a lethargic but slowly endearing slumbering charm that the band brings to these largely narcoleptic tunes. The mix, therefore, of newer bands influenced by psychedelia with original era groups that mixed this with more of a sludgy, hard rock but not necessarily loud rock edge, especially from the first part of the 70s, makes this not an exercise in nostalgia but a mature, and professionally prepared presentation of tunes that only at first glance seem simple. It takes a few minutes, not a 30-second sample start, for most of the tracks to begin to sink into your synapses. The wait`s worth it.
The care in crafting this album will make me search out other Dead Meadow efforts; I know this is considered their "breakthrough" album if only relatively speaking. It`s the first time I heard of the band. I get the impression that they may have tamped down the spark of previous albums here, but this slow burning collection does, as I`ve explained, work well as a whole. The balance of vocals and instrumental sections provides more depth to the songs, and they simmer rather than boil.
P.S. A well-matched counterpart from 2005 also would be the self-titled Black Mountain CD, which also blends newer and older neo-psych with similarly percolating early 70s folk and rock and even a bit of experimental flourishes.
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-- zzzz
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