Built on a Weak Spot

This is one of those times where I don’t even know where to begin. It’s been a long wait for the follow up to Suburban Hymns and as of tomorrow it will finally be available to the record buying public in the form of Tragic Boogie through Arena Rock Recordings.

It’s kind of hard to gauge exactly what my expectations for this record were. My relationship with The Life and Times and their previous album was kind of an odd one in that I listened to it quite a bit at first however the initial impact of it wore off sooner than I would have liked I guess. Still a pretty good record, no doubt, however I think my expectations at that time were bubbling over and had finally burst and rocketed to an insane level due to my love for Allen Epley’s previous outfit Shiner. Anyone who reads this blog already knows plenty about them I’m sure and their importance to Midwestern rock. With Tragic Boogie, I found myself curious to hear what’s on it more so than what I wanted to hear, if that makes any sense. However, after listening to the album multiple times now…I don’t think it would have mattered as this thing is fantastic from start to finish.

Tragic Boogie takes the lush shoegazer influenced melodies that swept across the bands debut and adds to them significantly. In between records the band constructed their own studio that allowed them the sort of time to experiment with their sound and see through every creative thought they could have possibly had. The result is a record that sounds fully realized; swelling with the type of intricacies that only months of work and attention could have produced. It may sound cheesy in a way to say something like that, but Tragic Boogie really is the type of record that is meant for multiple listens. In classic Midwestern fashion, everything is set to such a large scale…melodies, bass lines, and drums. Complete power, but yet played out in a style that doesn’t come at you all from one direction. The songs flow seamlessly from one to another without a hiccup along the way. I think it’s safe to say the album was worth the wait.

Thankfully the promo team behind this release, the excellent Riot Act, has chosen one of my favorite tracks from the disc to be posted. Give it a listen.

The Life and Times – Let It Eat [MP3]

For anyone looking to pick this up, it’s currently available through Arena Rock. If you like what you hear above, I strongly suggest getting this.

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 5:13 am and is filed under indie-rock, midwestern rock, shoegaze. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.