I love the idea of The Mendoza Line. I love the respect, I love the roots, I love the commentary, I love the style, I even love the idea of the side projects. There is something undoubtedly satisfying about this band. People pine over their graceful protest songs, their gorgeous drinking ballads, the frailty of the vocals over warm, lavish yet subtle sound-scapes, but sometimes we get so caught up in the idea of the Mendoza Line that we forget about our normal reactions to music of this sort. We are a judging kind, music lovers, and we can be the cruelest of critics. We tear to shreds that which appeals to the masses and hail and praise that which revolts the amateur ear; we scrutinize every album that doesn’t take a particular shape or every band that refuses to stick to a genre and if we didn’t know better, we might dismiss (rightfully perhaps?) The Mendoza Line’s newest album, Full of Light and Full of Fire.
Like I said, we are a judging kind. And I judge. All the time. I have no qualms with those that disagree with me, they just happen to be wrong. Full of Light and Full of Fire is a great record in many respects, mostly when the band remains subdued, and is thoroughly mediocre in some respects, mostly when the band decides to “take it up a notch,” but the album as a whole still manages to succeed more than it fails.
As usual, the album is full of smoky, sensual, battered vocals from Shannon McArdle coupled with the drunken beleaguered squawks (I mean that in a really good way) of Timothy Bracy singing lyrics that deserve to be discussed over wine and rolled cigarettes. But Full of Light really hits when it’s centered on songs rather than ideas. It seems to me that the weaker songs on the album (i.e. ‘Golden Boy’, ‘Name Names’, ‘Morbid Craving’) start out as decent ideas but never delve deeper. The lyrical content of the songs remain consistently strong but with filler for music, it gets lost in a wash of clumsy riffs and distracting distortion. But songs like ‘Lethal Temptress’, ‘Catch a Collapsing Star’, or ‘Settle Down Zelda’ play their strengths on song-craft rather than riff-craft and the whole album is better for it. The album ends with a stunning and gorgeous semi-live feeling track called ‘Our Love is Like a Wire,’ that proves that Timothy Bracy can sing and that this band should be appreciated in a live setting. The song is tastefully understated, full of class, and absolutely pleasantly surprising, much like the band. Unfortunately, the album as a whole is an underwhelming collection of songs that sometimes succeeds, and sometimes fails, which isn’t necessarily a terrible thing, but in this case, I can’t let my adoration for the band mask the reality of this average record.
I suspect The Mendoza Line doesn’t troll Kevchino.com looking for affirmation for their latest effort. I suspect they don’t particularly care what a snob like me thinks. But I do suspect that regardless of what people say about this band or their music, they probably won’t change it. They will probably write the songs they want to write until they stop writing all together and this is what I love about the band. I love the idea of the Mendoza Line, and happily, I love their music too. Like all influential and inspiring bands, they have an impressive catalog, they don’t set an agenda for each record and they certainly don’t bow to expectations of critics. But also like these bands, they don’t always strike gold. This is one of those. |