AWmusic

Trail of Dead have always specialized in bombast, often to a slightly ridiculous if still thoroughly awesome extent. Anyone who has read the front page of Pitchfork even a few times knows the story: The Austin band released an album called Source Tags & Codes on Interscope in 2001 that received a ludicrously enthusiastic response from the press. A ten out of ten here, a five out of five there, and fanatically raving hipsters all over the goddamned internet elevated the album to legendary status within days of its release. The album actually became notorious because everyone thought it was so good. And it’s not often you’re going to hear me say this, but a blue moon rose over Trail of Dead when they released Source Tags, because I still believe it to be one of the absolute best rock releases this decade, and it holds a place among my top ten favorite albums – I was in agreement with the critical consensus of the album, which is a damned impressive feat. The band had showcased some hefty ambition with its previous releases, but the major label budget enabled them to saturate their epic guitar orchestrations with vast, golden grandeur – who thought tubular bells could be so punk rock?

But like so many bands that are so fawned upon by the fickle critics’ fraternity, Trail of Dead succumbed to the enormous pressure of their greatness and lost sight of who the fuck they wanted to be. Their successive releases and lineup changes (most painfully the departure of bassist/singer Neil Busch after Source Tags) made them pariahs in the indie music world as they wrote increasingly ridiculous bullshit. By the time of their last full-length release, So Divided, infamously featuring a paradoxically grandiose cover of Guided By Voices’ class “Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory,” they had become straightfaced parodies of themselves, and they knew it.

But enough about the past. Now Trail of Dead have parted bitterly with their major label and moved to Brooklyn, recording and releasing The Century of Self on their own. Now in their mid-thirties, they have largely abandoned the stage-smashing ridiculousness of their earlier selves, but retained their love of totally gratuitous bigness. There’s been a lot of talk about how they’re poised to make a return to critical favor, as they’ve fallen so much under the radar (and performed so inconsistently in the past) that basically nobody has any expectations for them at this point. Indie critics can flex their philosophical dick-muscles all they want, but if the mixed responses to their previous post-Source Tags releases is any indication, these critics have become unable to see any of Trail of Dead’s post-opus output as pieces of goddamned music. So I made a solemn pledge before spinning The Century of Self to listen to it as just such; a clean slate. And you know what, I’m surprised to say, as a piece of music The Century of Self is actually pretty great.

I can’t help but fault the band on their overabundance of ambition, but from the opening notes of “Giants Causeway” it was slightly reassuring to feel like de facto leader Conrad Keely hasn’t left behind his grand vision in retreating to the underground. The first proper song, “Far Pavilions,” is almost as bracing as any track from Source Tags, although as the song and the album go on it’s clear Keely has developed his ear for pop appeal, even if in a 70’s prog sense. In contrast with the flaccid, aborted rockers on So Divided, the band let you feel the downbeats in your chest like in the good old days, and leadoff single “Bells of Creation” lets us pump our fists like we’ve wished we could for nearly a decade. It’s almost as though the band have finally learned the lessons that we as listeners have been wishing they would for so many years and given us what we deserve for putting up with Worlds Apart (the album and the god-awful single). It’s pointless to compare The Century of Self to Source Tags & Codes, but this album is pretty damned good, and for the first time in eight years I can say I’m excited about this band.

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead – Far Pavilions
…And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead – Bells of Creation

www.trailofdead.com

Tags: album, balls out, century of self, trail of dead