Sunday, June 07, 2009
A+E, Music, Reviews

Manchester Orchestra

“MEAN EVERYTHING TO NOTHING”  (FAVORITE GENTLEMAN/CANVASBACK)

There are few reviews of Atlanta’s Manchester Orchestra that don’t at least allude to Kurt Cobain or Nirvana. This is one more.

   It’s difficult to distance yourself from frontman and founder Andy Hull’s primary influence, no matter how powerful the songs are on the band’s sophomore release.  Producer Joe Chiccarelli’s credits are well established for his work with the Shins, My Morning Jacket and especially the Raconteurs and the White Stripes (speaking of the latter two acts, Jack White is also referenced in Hull’s careening voice). Chiccarelli pounds the songs into commercial shape, maintaining some of the jagged edges and Hull’s somewhat tortured singing, while buffing others, making the sound more palatable to the masses.

     Hull remains a wordy writer, generally overly so, and these guitar-driven tunes seem built around somewhat murky concepts and an indie-rock approach perfected in the early ’90s. It’s also hard to take mumbo-jumbo such as “I know you think you know but you probably don’t/ and I know you think you know but you probably don’t know” seriously, regardless of how passionately it’s sung.

   When the band hits a rugged, smoldering groove on the title track, it’s interrupted by Hull’s lyrics, which punch holes in the song’s flow instead of enriching it.

     Hull takes himself pretty seriously playing a tormented soul, as he should. But it makes the band seem little more than hired hands in the shadow of a guy who is already dwarfed by a far more legendary figure. 2.5 STARS—Hal Horowitz