The New Year crafts songs that hover in the space between thoughtfulconsideration and expression. It is the music of anticipation andpatient contemplation, a flurry of intention and fervor just a quantumleap away from coalescing into a deluge of expression. This moment ofimpeccable meaning is fraught with dusky reserve, held close only toemerge as snippets of melody and song. On their second release (notincluding the Kadane brothers Bedhead experience, of which The New Yearis an evolution of), the band dwells in extremely familiar territory,their slow core roots dug deep and spread wide. The opening track, "TheEnd is Not Near" is shocking, not in that the song is a departure ordynamic leap from the band's sound, but in that it sounds frightfullylike Elliot Smith singing from the great beyond. Once this isreconciled, the song is actually a highlight of the album, a touchingtribute in sound and concept to the late songwriter and a feather inthe cap of the album. "Chinese Handcuffs" strikes a comfortable balancebetween the neat structure of the song and the shimmering elaborationof that structure through a delightfully dexterous melody. When themelody lurches upward, it pulls the whole song along with it. "Disease"builds from an aloof, meditative melody into a full-blown cascade ofclattering guitars, reverberating off the inside of the skull anddrifting into a dreamlike ambiance, with the vocals slipping justbeneath the mix and subtly etching an impression on the mind. Here, ason "Chinese Handcuffs," the distinct guitar melodies of the songselevate them beyond the simple sedate skeletons that are dulyconstructed by the laconic singing and delicate accompaniment. The NewYear drifts through their songs with an even-keeled temperment that isoccasionally too sleepy for its own good. Several tracks, like theopener, manage to explore this delicate, patient space with an elementof control and direction. Songs like "Stranger to Kindness," however,simply feel adrift, as if the component pieces are slipping away fromone another. The End is Near is a competent work with several moments of superb songcraft that is sadly connected by loose ends and slack lines. Read More
