Pas/Cal I Was Raised on Matthew, Mark, Luke and Laura. The most anticipated album ever, in my tiny plastic heart, and inevitably it disappoints. Tragedy. It starts off a bit Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me, no really, for a few merciful err...perhaps hopeful seconds, there is a piano, it is gloomy but then it turns avant tedious somewhat quickly after that. It isn't as if this is a terrible song, no, it is merely the first indication that this is not a pop record. If we were expecting the greatest pop record in the history of the world, and we were, let's be honest, then after deciding it is not going to deliver on that count we must accept that in its place we must learn to live with what is essentially a sequel to Mercury Rev's See You On the Other Side instead. I love SYOTOS, dearly. But the fact that this record shares more in common with that record than it does with say Pet Sounds or even The 3-Way confounds dearly. Is it a reversion back to the mathematical halcyon of Asha Vida and Burnt Hair? Unknown. It is something to be cheered if you were concerned about craft and attention to detail and comprehensiveness but it's disastrously ponderous. It's something akin to watching gears turn inside a machine without being concerned about the end result. The workings and precision might fascinate but you don't really have any need for the resulting outcome do you. I was always fascinated by this old meat grinder that my parents had, it must have been 75 years old, solid and gleaming still, but all my mother ever made with it was this oddly pugnacious ham salad. At the moment we're going into the 'stuttering' phased ending. Dull, so very dull, but competent. Again. Next song. You Were Too Old For Me, this is faintly reminiscent of what has come before in Pas/Cal world, the golden years, it is...an almost pop song. It's got this leaden pace shackling it down though, the entire record does, there are few moments that rise above, that carry you aloft on angel sighs or dorsal fins. Even now with the jaunty sprint Casimer is engaged in at the moment, it's only ascended towards being mediocre. It is about his father. All of the lyrics are more personal, allegedly, I don't understand why this makes them better. Pop song lyrics don't matter. The sooner everyone on the planet realizes this the better off we will all be. Teachers might then stop assigning a exposition on Born to Run to their 10th grade honors english courses. It took years to make this album. Was it an exercise to resemble the lepidoptera or merely petrification? Were these once vibrant and exciting tunes and they just became ossified from age or were they young and exciting , larva like, and through endless tinkering and muscling did they become transformed into things joyless and uninspired? What did these songs sound like before they became this overbaked? There are loads of intricacies to marvel at at the moment but his voice, in the very same moments, is errant and unfortunate. Last bit is nice, a hopeful return to a verdant youth quashed by cynical sophistication. Again. The drummer is highly skilled, I am not sure if this is an asset. He's too heavy fisted, clubbing his toys mercilessly. Is that the result of a producer who is timid? I remember reading that they wanted to toughen their sound with this record but then later I read that they completely changed thier approach about halfway through and where they ended up is still a mystery even after hearing this. Who knows, who cares. It can't be termed a successful evolution from initiation to completion. Ending is pointless, really, he should have stopped with the short, tender piano send-off. Ugh. Next song is the second worst on the album. Here I am setting you up even as the second song continues interminably for no apparent reason at all, this could have been the live extended coda but it really needn't be on the album. Mercy. It is over! Now, We Made Our Way We Amtrakked, minor chord intros, they are in love with the minor chord intro. His voice is rather dire here. High pitched and squealy and "aggressive". They should not do rock songs, if anything is apparent and well put forward from this record, it is that much. It's completely unlikable. I find it so. There is a short bit after the first chorus, softened, wordless, a respite but then back to his pointless ranting. Someone else wrote that the songs are not good enough to justify the arrangements and I find myself in agreement. The demos here would not thrill The world's worst whistling solo is going on now, and now some vaudeville styling underneath that world's worst whistling solo ever, marvelous. There are dozens of parts to this song, currently it is not so ill starred but then of course soon it turns unfortunate and ugly once more. I think this was the song where my crestfallen heart decided it would not be revived in regard to this album, my heart sent up a line of pickets in protest. Summer is Almost Here is the next song, I already knew that was a fantastic song, but its from ages ago. Are all of the rest a more recent vintage? Dull thuds and random bits on guitars, there is nothing aspiring in any of this. Driving home this evening in the eastern sky was a flat bottomed cloud, cleaved by the shearing breezes and a rainbow plunged into the base of the cloud. That was inspiration, truth and beauty. Now to Summer is Almost here, a classic, sure, but we already knew that. I wonder about Craig. Is he a 9-5 dad who carries a briefcase to work inside it a tuna sandwich and the latest copy of Utne Reader? Possibly. A tweed suit, a geometric tie and his NHS spectacles and loafers. When he comes home there may be a quick hug for the kids, a chance to tell them about the electrifying mojo and then a journey to the basement to work over once more the already tortured tapes of this album. This is the anti-summer summer hit pop song. In context of the album the ending seems pointlessly drawn out, out of context it did not. Next song, Glorious Ballad of the Ignored, dreadfully voiced. Dreadfully accompanied by multi-tracked Craig-ness. The chorus, dull and pudgy. I miss the empty spaces within, within say a song like Poor Maude which is clearly as inventive as anything on here but doesn't suffer from the kitchen sink mentality that overloads the senses on everything here. it's delicate and intricate right now in a transition stage but his voice, the wordless insipidness, blah blah blah. It's masterfully played but then so was The Second Coming, it will surely win all sorts of awards at music producer camp but who will want to listen to this record? It is an endurance test. It is physically taxing to make it through, honestly. It's sci-fi pop music. I half expect the majority of the band to be bearded by the end of the record, it is that taxing. it seems like all of the pieces of this song fit together exquisitely but the whole is wholly unmemorable. It is all very Grandaddy. Was there a hoto of Dave Fridmann pasted on the wall for inspiration? If you recall I was going to write a more positive review of the record than this as a point-counterpoint exercise but I don't want to have to sit through this record again. Next song. I've heard this one before. Long ago, over Christmas once, live to radio. It hasn't changed much since then. I wasn't much for it the first time that I heard it to be honest. It is similar to the song that just ended. The long fruitless ballads that lie like twin anchors and cause the album to sag around the middle. Bloated is the term we have avoided so far. I am still waiting for Suzanne Thorpe to show up. Was the whistling from earlier a tribute? More of the annoying wordless fills. Unnecessary. Have you listened to the advertisement for the NFL network where they have appropriated Morrissey's Everyday is Like Sunday for a football advertisement? It is surreal. There was a time where Morrissey claimed to be a proponent of the sweet science but would he ever go for american football? Surely not. No one will ever compare Craig to the sound of American Football. Pas/Cal receive dubious credit for having clever lyrics. Not really. I miss the Detroit references. At the moment he's singing about one of his teachers, from his youth. This is the best of the new songs. It's still not great. It's a bit Queen. Only his voice sounds as if it's been buffeted by a massive dose of soul destroying sheen. It treads as if it has been tracked 5 or 6 times and all of the tender vulnerable hollowness of the earlier records has been evacuated, willfully, until all we are left with is desultory emptiness. Another segue into a bouncy Wings-like pop jaunt, again, not great. Again with the aggression. Not wise. He's fey, sensitive and articulate, he isn't abrasive or intimidating or threatening. Is it anger? Frankly there is loads to be angry about in Detroit. It's a marvel that they have managed to sound as lovely as they do on this album. It's a mystery whether the current financial crisis will engender a new movement that matters in pop music. A return to modest earnestness and a movement away from the narcissistic display of superficial emotion without depth or sincerity that is based more on misogyny than anything else. Emo = misogyny, it is my pet theory. At least Pas/Cal are not emo. Another old song, Little Red Radio, a classic with the marvelous organ that propels the song fiercely. Fierce is better than aggressive, especially as his voice is merely energized rather than pained. The Detroit references comfort. Only a Detroit boy would long for a Cadillac these days. At least he isn't singing for a hybrid Escalade. We will surely need to endue their version of Eco School on the second album. Will there be a second album? This one doesn't appear to be winning over that many converts actually. The Cherry suite has now begun. First part is a vocal led piece, falsetto or is it Bem singing? Could be. I seem to recall that he didn't have anything to do with one part of this "suite". This is not horrible, it's seemingly more suited for life as a b-side somewhere but I can live with it, at least the drums are muted, somewhat. The voices though, still not great, did he forget how to record his/her voice in the last year or so? Did he fall out of love with his voice? Part II. A country-ish beginning. Actually quite pleasant until the multi-tracking on the vocals start, they don't work as an ethereal band either. It's a delicate balance they must maintain then, earthy and charming, not rocking, not wispy, a witty pop band. Soft pop. This isn't great, it's a bit dull. Part III now, this is the most successful part, maybe I am biased because they use a drum machine instead of the clubber. This entire record could serve as metaphor for modern life, a parallel to the gleaming technology and architecture that is renewing the skin of modern life while the soul within turns decrepit and spoilt. Everything about this album sounds great but the spirit inside is just not refreshing, I can't wrap my arms around it at all. Even as Part III gently charms it still seems second rate, we think it might have been even better if they had gotten out from under the x-rays in the cloud mines and followed a more skeletal approach. Humans have always been abominations, the history of this planet is punctuated not by the epochs of tranquility but by the endless march of cruelty. Our age will be no different, though the beastliness now appears to be a more personal matter, destruction is sown in Myspace pages, in the degradation of social mores and the general decline of public standards when applied to intellectual rigour, ethics and decency. I am from the wrong generation, I should have been born pious in the 11th century and livd alone in the bogs of Wales. Far from the disappointments of records like this. But then the disappointments whether they be pop record, novel endings or people in general actually serve to inspire more than anything else. I know I can be better. People more clever than I am have failed but I can step on the steps paved by their failures and discover a new sense of enlightenment just beyond their grasp. There was another song, the new version of Citizen's Army Uniform but honestly I don't ever want to listen to it ever again so I've put the original version in it's place and it's rather nice.