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Review:
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I’ve been anticipating this Young Antiques album
for two years. In 2000, the band released its first full-length
cd, Wardrobe for a Jet Weekend,
and it displayed some of the best songwriting in Atlanta. I
truly believed that their follow-up, Clockworker,
could only be better. I heard a demo of three new songs awhile
back and was very pleased. I was even more excited when they
got signed on to one of Evilsponge’s favorite labels, 2 Sheds
Records. The future looked bright, indeed.
Accordingly, the first two tracks on Clockworker
are almost the same as the demo. The first of those, The
Winning Season, is as strong as the band’s earlier work:
clear melody, roots-rock sound, nice lyrical ballad. Definitely
the most accomplished song on the album. The second track, Porcelain
is another well-designed piece that features the powerful driving
drums of the band’s newest member, John Speaks. However, Porcelain
is tainted by something I have never heard on an indie label
record: profanity editing. The song is a crisply recorded rock
anthem, and in the demo, it featured an angry lyric that ended
with the word “shit.” But in the label release, the word has
been edited out completely. I’m not sure what the band’s motive
was for this self-censorship, but I suspect they may have been
trying to make the song more “radio friendly.” (Ironically,
a later song on Clockworker includes the infamous
f-word which is clearly audible, making this editing choice
even more specious.) Regardless, the censoring is a great disappointment,
and that annoyance factor merits the loss of one sponge rating
alone.
Perhaps I could forgive the band’s ill-advised self-censoring
if the rest of Clockworker left me enthralled, but such is not
the case. The next seven tracks take a decidedly different turn
from the first two -- and from the band’s earlier album. In
their press release, the Young Antiques state that Clockworker
is a sort of live concept album, and this concept seems to begin
on the third track, Adore. Whereas the first two songs
display the band’s fine ability to mix a variety of sounds with
Blake Rainey’s passionate lyrics and mahogany voice, the rest
of the album is a whirlwind of short, fast, power-pop songs
that sound like a poorly mixed live EP rather than a full-length
album.
Many of the tracks, such as Adore and Holiday
are fuzzed-out guitar rock with unispired melodies. Rainey’s
vocals, usually the highlight of the band’s appeal, often sound
far away, as if he were recorded singing in another room. Sadly,
too, his subtle, deep voice is not well suited for belting out
lyrics over the loud guitar and often seems on the verge of
cracking rather than crooning. However, some songs like Little
to the Left and On a Planet work fairly well as pseudo-live
tracks—the former because of its catchy chorus and the latter
because it features Rainey solo with a guitar, offering his
voice a moment of spotlight. Is It On?, the only song
credited to the entire band, offers high-tempo rock that should
show off Speaks’ fast, tight drumming (evident in all their
live shows), but it, too, would have benefited from a clearer
recording with more intricate mixing.
All in all, if this were the band’s first album, or perhaps
if it weren’t a successor to the accomplished Wardrobe
for a Jet Weekend, it would be impressive enough.
But, having heard the Young Antiques play these songs live many
times, I was hoping for a few new surprises, or at least some
unique studio arrangement. But alas, no. And, weighing in at
only 26 minutes long total and only eight actual songs, I am
left wanting more from Clockworker and the Young
Antiques.
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