Cold War Kids
(Downtown)
Cut to the chase: Loyalty to Loyalty is a scary fucking record, an indie rock version of the Rolling Stones at their darkest, a whole album as harrowing as "Midnight Rambler" or "Gimme Shelter." And like those great Stones records, it captures a moment in time in its sound as much as its lyrics; while the presidential candidates both manipulate pop culture to their own ends, Loyalty to Loyalty offers up an alternative soundtrack, the aural equivalent of citizen video footage of cops rounding up kids in Denver and St. Paul.
Nathan Willett's guitar scratches and claws out riffs grounded in the blues without slavishly following blues tropes, starting out with two-note Morse code pulse on the opener "Against Privacy," before drummer Matt Aveiro and bassist Matt Maust come loping in, in fits and starts, dancing around the downtempo groove while Willet promises to "talk about welfare...sex...the Pope in Prada shoes," inviting us to join in-or maybe anticipating the inevitable clampdown-by croaking "we're waiting for your call." Things only get darker on "Mexican Dogs" and "Every Valley is Not a Lake," which grooves on a barrelhouse piano straight out of a Sergio Leone spaghetti western.
That's not to say the album's without humor, but it's black humor, as in the raveup "Something is Not Right With Me," when Willett sings "I tried to call you collect/ You said you would not accept/ Your friends are laughing ‘cause nobody uses pay phones," or "Welcome to the Occupation," when he shouts "They don't want poets/ They want pigeons on a stool." Nor is it without moments of musical release. "Avalanche in B" starts out at a harrowing crawl before blossoming into a genuinely beautiful bridge; of course, it soon returns to the musical equivalent of the narrator's psychic torment, segueing into "I've Seen Enough," a tale of "browbeaten shame" punctuated by "oohs" straight out of "Gimme Shelter."
Loyalty to Loyalty ain't easy listening, and its relentlessly bleak tone means it's not likely to wind up in anybody's heavy rotation. It doesn't need to; it haunts your dreams.
Standout Tracks: "Against Privacy," "Something is Not Right with Me" ERIC SCHUMACHER-RASMUSSEN
