A vast improvement over last year's Little Spaces, this second
full-length from the Arkansas-based power-pop foursome flits from jittery,
electro-shocked rockers to touching ballads to jangly college rock
anthems. Sparklehorse's Alan Weatherhead produced the album, capturing
what must be really intense live energy with clarity and precision. It's
like going to a show, in other words, except you can understand all the
lyrics.
The album starts with a bang, the manic, super-charged "Stolen Blues"
pitting Collins Kilgore's jittery, hair-pulling vocals against stabs of
guitar in a punk-leaning manifesto that breaks, unexpectedly, for lyrical
interludes. It's a hint at the band's split personality, all-out rock jams
interspersed with quiet bits of melody. "Open Letter," which follows,
slows things down and slips a roots-rocking flavor into the mix, its heavy
ringing guitar notes and earnest lyrics reminiscent of Centro-Matic. Then
it's back to palm-muted urgency with "Simple Life," one of the album's best
cuts, as sweet falsetto vocals swirl around a hard-hit rock
foundation. "You don't want the simple life," sings Kilgore, amidst a
thicket of dueling drums and guitar and bass — not a line you're going to
hear in most country-rock songs. But this is not your typical bearded band
of Neil Young lovers.
The best songs on the album are a diverse group,
ranging from the ELO-shaded, Brit-pop ballad "Annie" to the anarchic
distortion-fuzzed sweetness of "This Is the Year," to the Marshall
Crenshaw-ish roots bravado of "Copper for Sound." The cuts are united less
by style and more by ferocious energy that somehow lets its vulnerability
show.
Contrary to its title, Less and Less is more and more from a young
band just now finding its signature sound. American Princes could
go in any of several directions from here... but let's hope they continue to
go in all of them.
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