...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead: Lost Songs (Richter Scale/Superball Music)

…And You Will Know us by the Trail of Dead

Lost Songs

Richter Scale/Superball Music

Oct 23, 2012 Web Exclusive By Dan Lucas

In The Truman Show, Jim Carrey plays a puppet to a media mogul whose every move is controlled by powers above; in Liar Liar, he finds himself unable to lie, and in Yes Man Carrey can’t say “no.” Now, imagine if the brilliant Steve Albini was struck by a similar affliction to his imagination and ability to think creatively and produced a Snow Patrol record: you’re either thinking of Biffy Clyro, or you’ve got Trail of Dead’s Lost Songs in a nutshell.

This isn’t to knock a consistently decent, occasionally great post-hardcore band. There’s nothing especially unpleasant here, but everything from the raucous(ish) “Up to Infinity” to the acoustic-led “Heart of Wires” tends to plod rather than soar, as the band is capable of on the likes of Source Tags & Codes or Madonna. The album is perhaps best epitomised by “Opera Obscura”: almost punk-pop but far too lo-fi to ever stand next to those that mastered the genre such as The Ramones or early Weezer.

Despite its title, Lost Songs is an album of new material rather than off-cuts and B-sides. Nevertheless, the directionless nature of the songs leaves them feeling half-formed, perhaps better refined or even left on the cutting room floor than making their way to a full album. (www.facebook.com/andyouwillknowusbythetrailofdead)

Author rating: 5/10

Rate this album
Average reader rating: 8/10

Comments

Submit your comment

miike
October 25th 2012
2:02am

Lost Songs is a brilliant record. By way of mentioning Snow Patrol, I gather the writer is unable to comprehend what kind of band Trail of Dead has evolved into, yet he can conjure memories of what the band was 10 years ago.

fatalyti
November 5th 2012
10:26pm

“Source Tags & Codes or Madonna”. The records usually “known” to be their “best”. I don’t like these albums very much, they have done a lot better afterwards if you ask me. This is why I don’t like when reviews are always comparing their new stuff to these particular records. Lost Songs is rather hard to get into. Punk-Pop you say? I really miss the “pop” ingredient in most songs of this album. To me it sounds more like progressive punk. And how can an album be “too lo-fi” when it has a punk attitude? The sound of this album is actually far closer to their earliest material, but with the band having matured since.

What about exceptional songs like the monumental Open Doors or the post-rock-like Awestruck? Also, this is their first album since their self-titled without a proper “intro” track which actually surprised me.

I’m not sure yet how good this album really is (to me), maybe it is only mediocre overall. But this review doesn’t really get the facts straight. If anything is “half-formed”, this review is much more likely a candidate.

alfan
November 29th 2012
2:58am

to be honest, lost songs by far is the most effective and compact album from Trail Of Dead, the writer maybe didn’t see the coherence between the title “Lost Songs” and the fact that most of the songs in the album are less than 5 minutes. It is obvious that the band wanted to make a breakthrough and a “break” from the complex and theatrical nature of their previous albums, it means that the songs in the album are treated in a stand-alone manner without a general theme that unites them all. Which is perfect for a leisure time listening or even to play in a road trip. this is the perfect all access introduction to trail of dead to novice listener.

Reviews