The New Year - Newness Ends
(Touch and Go)
This being called the New Year and Newness Ends and all these references to things that are
"new" makes one think that maybe the Brothers Kadane are concerned about the newness of this project,
perhaps especially as how it pertains to how it sounds when compared with the now somewhat legendary
Bedhead. Well, rather than be respectful of that and evaluate the question of the New Year simply on its
own terms, I will instead address what we all actually care about, which is how it stacks up against
Bedhead.
Bedhead was not very fancy or tricky, but they had a definite artifice to their music--a distinct form and
structure, which form and structure often seemed as important to the music as anything else. You know
what I mean: that quiet and sad building to loud and sad, or sparse and sad becoming layered and sad.
That aspect of their songs has been, largely, jettisoned.
Given that Bedhead was working within the narrow confines of a traditional rock band, that artifice seemed
to be an integral part of what made them unique. Without it, the New Year is not too distinctive. I mean,
it's obviously the bearded Brothers Kadane: it's their voices and their guitars, but the songs are mediocre
country-flavored porch music, flushed out and electrified for a full band.
Maybe because the artifice of Bedhead was so thin that, when combined with their delicate melodies and
subdued vocalizations, the very fragility of the songs was the initial catch, and hearing them burn up in the
three-guitar frenzy that ended many of their songs was what really brought them home. The excitement of
Bedhead lie in the difference between the icy frailty and the burning rock and roll fire. Take that away and
all you have is a puddle of water.
The New Year songs which work the best, like the opener "Half a Day" or the excellent (and excellently
titled) "One Plus One Minus One Equals One" are the simpler ones, which retain the open nakedness of
Bedhead's best work. Those songs are richly textured, engaging tracks. Many of the other tracks, like
the upbeat "Gasoline" or the heavily distorted riffed-up tracks which complete the record, come off like a
forced attempt to be anti-Bedhead, a sissy band trying to prove they too can rock. What is wrong with
being a sissy? Anyone can turn the amps up and make a racket, but only a select few can make
interesting, original music using only a couple of guitars. The Kadane Brothers have accomplished that in
the past. However, as Matt Kadane sings on the closing track, "I won't be that way for you again."
|
