Album Review: You Know People I Know People
Morning State: You Know People I Know People
Morning State finally released their debut full-length album last week after having to scrap the first recording due to their label collapsing. You can read all about that Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-esque storyline here. The album released is actually from a second, separate recording session earlier this year with Asa Leffer (The Whigs, Dark Meat, The Pendletons) at DARC in Athens, GA over an 11 day span.
The album opens with “Sad Is When I’m Driving” and is the perfect intro track to this band. At moments it is melodic and reserve, others it is rocking hard delivering the best of its collective members. Sweet and concise guitar riffs, driving rhythms on the drums, straightforward, catchy hooks from vocalist Russ Ledford, and a tease of their bottled up potential to jam out. The album builds up momentum with the short second track, “Hurry, Hurry”, before they drop one of the obvious hit songs, “Never So Strange.” The version of this track seems so much more laid back and tentative from what I remember of it live. It helps with the overall flow of the album, but something about the song itself seems lacking.
“Grown Up (Atlanta)” is up next and is my favourite song on this record. I usually go back and listen to this one again every time I put You Know People in my CD player. It channels everything I enjoy about bands like The Foo Fighters and Queens Of the Stone Age. The jam at the end of the next track,”On A Walk,” really sells the guitar work on this album. Evey riff they employ seems to be the right decision for the particular feel they are trying achieve.
After a bit of a slow down, another standout tune,”That’s Quite A Rash,” picks up the velocity and really highlights the things that appeal to me most about this band. The two tracks that close out You Know People make for an interesting finale. As I understand it, “What Did You Want” was a newer song that wasn’t on the original recording. The extended jam in it seems so uncharacteristic for these guys, but feels so right. “Knives” ends an album that always seems stronger when its louder, bigger, faster, harder with their softest, most downbeat tune. The paradoxical ending accentuates both the potential this band has and exposes the quirks in its identity.
The biggest problem with this record is that the somewhat derivative, ’90s rock aesthetic might discourage someone with a progressive taste in music casually listening from digging deeper into the nuances and depth You Know People possesses. At the same time its idiosyncrasies may prevent it from being gobbled up in radio-pop land. The line they ride I think is a very interesting experiment in the current music climate, and I’m intrigued by both how it will turn out, and where these guys will go next. Even the way the album ends feels more like a question mark than an exclamation point. I’ll be patiently awaiting the answer.
Morning State will be at The Star Bar Tomorrow night for a CD Release party with Casper And The Cookies.
Morning State : You Know People I Know People : Grown Up (Atlanta)
Morning State : You Know People I Know People : That’s Quite A Rash
Buy You Know People I Know People here
- Posted by Davy Minor on May 14, 2008 at 12:56 am
