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Sacramento, California based An Angle might
as well simply adapt their set to fit into a 2:00 AM time slot.
The album is so somber and depressing. The singer sounds like
Connor Oberst of Bright Eyes, with the emphasized lyrics voiced
by Isaac Brock from Modest Mouse. The music is basically the
same. The album uses a noted formula: one solo acoustic song
then one rocking song, and the same pattern repeats within
songs.
That said, there is actually a lot here. I like the album.
The lyrics are fairly depressing, and the tone is dark. Like
me. There is a song called Self Medicate. This is obviously
not the usual Drive-thru Records material. My only concern
is that the welfare of the band as a whole is on the rocks.
As far as I'm aware, the band still exists (per the
website), but I worry. The band, it seems, is touching
on some very ugly subjects, and perhaps might be a little too
much to digest.
This is a low budget album with a really big sound. There
are some tracks with multi instrumentation (accordion, mandolin,
oboe…) and I think that the band will be a hit, especially
in the indie rock club venue circuit. I also think that the
sound is a little too big, at times, for such a premise.
It's rowdy at times, and then it's completely intimate and
controlled at others.
I usually blow off bipolar albums such as this as confused
and purposefully "difficult". More often then not, there are
too many distractions on these albums to ignore. It's the melancholy
that punches through on these recordings that really give And
Take It With a Grain of Salt life. Surprising duets
pop up through the album, as well as interesting sound experimentation
and effects. This gives the recording scale, and projects the
overall sound of the album into a much larger musical scope
than other albums in this category.
If you like minimalist singer songwriter rock like Bright Eyes, this is for you. In fact, I would basically say this is simply another slightly different version of Bright Eyes. It's good, and perhaps even more accessible. And you would be much more likely to see An Angle live in a small club.
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