The Alarmists, "The Overhead Left"
By Andrea Swensson in CD Review
Thursday, Jun. 11 2009 @ 7:00AM
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Clearly, the band has experienced a lot of inner turmoil, and you can read all about the ins and outs of the band in Chris Riemenschneider's gossipy column in Friday's print edition of the Star Tribune. But what is lacking in Riemenschneider's piece, and in every review I've seen of the new album, is any sort of critical analysis of the music. Because in the long run, does it really matter who threw a temper tantrum in the studio or who quit and who was fired? Of course not. The actions of a band should never overshadow their music, and in this case it seems that the Alarmists are content at using their lineup drama to mask the fact that they released a drab album full of half-baked ideas.
The most distracting element of the album is its lack of dynamic range. Rather than building into climactic choruses--which was one of the things they did best on their breakout EP A Detail of Soldiers and lost grip of on 2007's The Ghost and the Hired Gun--the songs are mixed at one uniform volume, giving it an overwhelming sense of flatness. In fact, "flatness" could be used to describe several different things on this record: the failure to utilize dynamics, the lack of variety between songs, and singer Lovold's voice.
In contrast to their previous two efforts, The Overhead Left strips away the layers of reverb to allow Lovold's voice to stand on its own, and it exposes him as a singer who doesn't always stay on pitch and struggles to draw out a long note. While the intention of skimming off layers of overproduction is a good one, the result, in this case, is unfortunate. "Watershed" and "The Elusive Mr. Albright" are especially cringeworthy, while the melody for "Car Crashing" simply seems to have been written too low for Lovold to sing it accurately.
The band attempts to add swells and crescendos with the addition of instruments and voices, but for the most part the harmonies fall just as flat as the melodies, buried too far into the mix to have any impact on the overall punch of the song. "Stop," "Rhyme and Reason," and "Car Crashing" come the closest to emulating the vigorous Britpop of their debut EP, but the poor production dampens what could otherwise be exciting tracks; there's hope that these tracks will translate well live when they perform at this weekend's CD-release show.
The most promising part of the album comes at the very middle, and, to my ears, is the standalone highlight. "Country" begins softly with the faint whistling of wind and a pensive piano part, and finds Lovold in a suprisingly sincere and heartfelt mood. One by one, the other members of the band join in and the melody swells, then picks up into a rollicking pop beat before fading away again. It's simple and sweet, and unlike anything else on the album, leaving one to wonder if they might have found more success in taking an entirely new direction, rather than attempting to bottle the memories of a sound that they once so expertly executed.
The Alarmists will play a CD-release show on Friday, June 12 at the Varsity Theater with Coach Said Not To, the 757s, and the Championship.
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