In 2000, I caught my first glimpse of Austin, Texas’ …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead on Farmclub.com, a Gen-Y American Bandstand hosted by the fat bald guy from MTV’s 120 Minutes. To be honest, I tuned in to see the Great Indie Hope (Hype?) of the moment, At The Drive-In. While ATDI put on a lively, sufficiently loose and chaotic performance, they were outdone in every way by a band with an even better acronym (…AYWKUBTOD? Come on). To put it succinctly, Trail of Dead fucked shit up. I can think of no greater pleasure than watching an audience full of Hoochies and Guidos standing in shock as TOD ripped the stage apart and tore the onlookers a new collective asshole.
Fast forward two years to TOD’s major label debut, the monstrous, epic and fucking awesome Source Tags & Codes. The album still stands at the top of my current naught decade heap. The band took a kitchen sink approach to the album and miraculously succeeded in every step. Although criticized for not being packed with new ideas, I see Source Tags & Codes as the fulfillment of 90’s indie rock. It was everything Goo, In On the Kill Taker, Yank Crime and How It Feels to be Something On strived to be: an expansive, unwavering indie rock opus. Now to just follow that up.
There was no way that Trail of Dead were going to reach the same heights they did in 2002. Lightning doesn’t strike twice, not for most bands anyway. TOD is no exception. Ideally TOD would scale back their grandiosity for maybe a more understated record, but World Apart, the follow up to Source Tags, is messy, uneven and cluttered with too many overreaching and plain bad ideas. That being said, there are some great moments to be found within the mire. It’s a cup-half-empty/cup-half-full situation. Either Worlds Apart is brimming with great songs brought down by wretched moments (like the awful bridge on the otherwise rocking “Classic Arts Showcase”) or subpar songs redeemed by brief moments of inspiration (the stomping verse that saves “The Best” from U2-style bombast).
Worlds Apart opens strongly enough (the hilariously over-the-top “Ode to Isis” notwithstanding). “Will You Smile Again?” is TOD’s must successful attempt at progressing their sound. “Smile” opens big and massive – like any good Trail of Dead song – only to drop back in order to zero in on singer Conrad Keely’s voice (a gamble if there ever was one). The song creeps along until the band unleashes itself back onto the opening riff. It’s a song that promises good things to come.
All hope is lost with a resounding “Hey, fuck you, man!” from Keely. It’s a statement that sets the tone for the title track and the album’s first single. It’s also the band’s worst song ever. “Worlds Apart” is TOD’s first song that lowers itself to rock radio’s standards. But, gasp, what’s this? “Worlds Apart” is about how boring rock radio is bad and, oh my God, it contains language that is far too naughty to ever receive mainstream acceptance. Didn’t NoFX do the same thing, like, over a decade ago? “Worlds Apart” is a song for those who still think that signing into MSN as “Nickleback Sux” is a form of subversion.
The rest of the album jumps back and forth between these highs and lows. “Summer of ‘91” sounds like a Randy Newman song before it turns into an innocuous rocker about more innocent times spent playing that old six-string. Although they tread basically the same ground as TOD’s past efforts, “The Rest Will Follow” and “Caterwaul” are anthemic enough to get indie snobs and jock rockers singing along in drunken unison. It’s a shame that the band was too misguided to release these as singles because after “Worlds Apart” it’s unlikely anyone is going to give them another chance.
The biggest difference between Worlds Apart and its predecessor is the formers’ lack of cohesiveness. Every song on Source Tags bled seamlessly into the next. The song links on Worlds Apart are distracting and occasionally laughable (is that a woman screaming for “Gandolf” on “The Best”?). They don’t serve a purpose on this album.
There are snippets of quality all over this album. Unfortunately, this time around, Trail of Dead couldn’t piece them together. Instead, the listener must fast forward through a song to find “the good part.” Worlds Apart is the sound of a band that doesn’t know who it is and what to do with itself. Is TOD this generation’s Sonic Youth, using major label funding to advance their decidedly challenging music? Or are they a modern day Smashing Pumpkins, bringing a new sound to the mainstream before getting bloated and unimportant? Either way, Worlds Apart may have ruined either option. |