Blitzen Trapper - Field Rexx

Any good band knows that you can’t succeed without a degree of variation. A mix of pace, an occasional ballad, the short novelty songs - they'll all be found amongst the best of albums. This is because nobody wants an album of 13 identical songs. Well Blitzen Trapper have pulled out all stops to ensure they’re bursting with variety. In fact you could easily mistake this for a compilation. Each song seems to come under a different genre. For every offering they dip their hands into a pool of influences, notably country, rock, folk, blues and pop and emerge with a brand new sound. The band, hailing from one of the united states, are relatively unknown so your chances of finding this record are slim. However if you do come across it, it’s definitely worth the second glance. It contains the slow (concrete heaven), the fast (moving minors over country lines), a ballad (dreamers and giants) the teasingly short (love I explain!) and even random excerpts from some crazy sounding old man – all the hallmarks of a great album. Now just to prove a point I’ve picked two different songs for sampling. While mentioning the names of the songs in brackets may have been a meaningless waste of space, the names of these songs should become familiar to you in no time.

Summer Twin – This is one of those chilled out, soothing sort of songs. It steps up the excitement in small increments, but never gets out of hand. That is of course if you don’t include the instrumental solos, complete with whistles

Asleep For Days – All that talk about variation and then I go and pick two of the more moderate songs. Ah well, at least it shouldn’t stop you from enjoying them. Besides, these songs sound good in isolation. Some of the others sound a bit lost when out of the collective. This song made it in on the sing along principle. If it’s stuck in my head it must have something going for it

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

is summer twin the 'probably my favourite slow song' you were referring to in other entry?

Anonymous said...

Peter did you notice alot of the bands you use have album covers with a graffiti/cartoon style to them, especially this one.

Anonymous said...

There's a new supergroup, Swan Lake! Includes Dan Bejar (Destroyer, The New Pornographers), Spencer Krug (Sunset Rubdown, Wolf Parade), and Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes). The Album is due out 21st of November.

Here's a sample:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/bejvnw

Peter said...

no. look out for my slow song in the rogue wave post

i guess regular album covers don't cut it anymore. But yeh alot them do seem to be cartoony except it's like a blend of real and cartoon. I mean if I was making an album cover that was gonna be seen the world over, I'd put a bit of time into sprucing it up


I dunno, supergroups aren't always guaranteed successes. Too much competition for glory. That song is alright, enough to make me consider getting the album. But I think I'll save getting excited until then. I forecast shattered hopes.....

Anonymous said...

I'm a sucker for supergroups (especially the The Reindeer Section). But more so if they're Canadian :p

Peter said...

was that supposed to be a subtle hint to get me to look into the reindeer section? well it worked

Anonymous said...

Supergroups also get alot of hype instantly and because members previous bands may have been good there is less of a critique of the supergroup music. It almost automatically is classified as great. But this one does sound like a good mix.

Anonymous said...

yes




(the glove - 'blue sunshine')