Between introducing Real Estate to an unsuspecting and unprepared world and laying out a (cheap!) compilation worth both owning and listening to, Underwater Peoples had a better 2009 than you did. Of course, your house was foreclosed upon, you lost faith in your president, the war that you initially supported is now a total drag, and you probably also lost your job. You didn't stand much of a chance against a small start-up label from New Jersey. See those dudes in the pool (the bearded one is Alex Bleeker)? I'm willing to bet dollars to doughnuts that the UP dudes spent most 2009 horsing around in the pool because, for them, it was a never-ending July BBQ for the past 12 months. And in late November UP released their first full length as a label, Alex Bleeker and the Freaks debut.I've outgrown the guitar solo. I can still worked up over J Mascis' noodling, sure, but by and large I'm more interested in guitars making weird sounds these days. Every now and then, though, someone flings out a solo that catches the ear of the 16 year old that still lives in my brain. So when Alex Bleeker flips on his wah-wah pedal for the exhilirating closing minute of "Prisoner of the Past" I'm back again hanging on every note while my algebra textbook sits open on my desk. I haven't gushed over the pure tonal qualities of a guitar since probably . . . I don't know . . . Cryptograms.
The most immediately attractive song is "Animal Tracks." The solo that begins the song is straight out of the Neil Young playbook: a corn-fed solo that manages to be lean but muscular. It took about 8 spins before I listened closely enough to see that it's actually a romantic little number about sitting on the back porch with a girl, whispering into each other's hair, drinking horsebark (?) root beer. Again, this was always Neil Young's trick, too. "Cowgirl in the Sand" is, after all, just the most massive pick up you've ever heard. In fact, Young (especially around Everybody Knows This is Nowhere) seems to be a sort of spiritual leader of the band; he guides a lot of the aesthetic of the album. It sounds indescribably country without employing any real honky tonk. It's sentimental without being sticky or nostalgic. It's brawny without being overpowering. You get the the sense that "Running Dry" has soundtracked a lot of the bands pre-rehersal meetings.
The best moment they have as a band is the album's opener, "Summer > Epilogue." After a lengthy solo that inaugurates the dozen or so throughout the album, the song quickly shifts gear, moving in big bright open chords that belie Bleeker's woeful lyrics ("Our bodies drifted further along parallel lines"). Once his heart seems sufficiently broken, Bleeker picks up his guitar, lets the feedback swell, and carries on with life by squeezing out another solo.
You can pick up a copy of the album here. Act quickly because only 1,000 were pressed.
Rating: 7/10
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