I've been catching up on 2009 album releases and I stumbled upon a band I enjoyed a lot back in 2008 at Voodoo Fest. The lead singer & lead guitarist, Andy Hull, impressed me with his ability to merge genres and maintain a calm collective sound that worked well in a live performance. His stage presence wasn't the most audacious thing I've ever seen; in fact, it was very humble. A t-shirt and jeans complemented with a full beard projected a sense of pleasure for what he does, but the rest of the band seemed pretty irrelevant aside from him and Chris Freeman on the keyboard.
So anyways, Manchester Orchestra released 'Mean Everything to Nothing' back in April 2009 and it got a lot of great reviews, but I wanted to add a little more to what was said.
Andy Hull is the writer for all of the lyrics on this album, and he excites, frustrates, then makes me wonder all throughout the album. Lyrically, I was taken on a journey through his weird lifestyle, with witty and confusing stories about love & relationships at every turn. At some point I began to side with his own frustrated mentality and I felt empathetic towards his existence. Then all of a sudden he starts singing (or screaming, I don't know?) about how his girlfriend is pregnant and he felt love. As if love is something he has never felt before. Cry yourself to sleep, Andy, please.
Instrumentally, I felt the album was ambitious. Back at Voodoo, the whole band was exciting to watch. Especially Chris Freeman, the keyboardist. He would randomly spaz out in the middle of his set and then appears to inadvertently play his instrument. As much as I'd like to talk about their ability to rock out on stage, I want to stick to the music. The whole thing is complicated and controlled enough to enjoy and respect. The band's ability to bring the context of the lyrics into fruition by complementing them with appropriate crescendo's and chord progressions is very impressive. Their instruments aren't too diverse, but they make use of different textures (such as cool piano supplements) which makes me believe they've worked really hard on this album.
All in all, I'd recommend listening to this album once or twice if you're getting bored with most other bands. It's not too hardcore that it made me walk to class with a stone-cold look on my face, and it's different enough that it made me appreciate the bands that you love. The vocals and instruments come together in a solid mix of "what the fuck?" moments and aesthetically pleasing music, and the lyrics only add to this complex collaboration of organized sound. However, aside from Andy Hull's intense vocals and crafty lyricism, I'm left with nothing to think about or yearn for. The first couple of tracks set the stage for a classic album that fans would remember for all time. But we didn't get that album. It started out great and at some point took a left-turn into a dark forest where nothing was happening. I'll give the band respect for the song "Shake it Out" because I definitely set it on repeat and listened couple times before moving onto the latter tracks, but I was thoroughly disappointed with the rest of the album.
Listen to some of their main tracks at their myspace page.
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