Murder Your Darlings by Wampeters

After several listens (and half-listens, my lack of ambition to listen to new discs lately is appalling when all I want to do is crawl in a cave with my Jeff Buckley and Neil Finn discs this week), the myriad of genres that are interplaying with each other began to take on a body of its own, reinventing the band's sound on several occasions and bringing out a surprising amount of variety and musical ability.

"I Am Thinking of My Darling" is a warm, golden ray of near roots-rock that leaves a big smile on the face and leads into "Pretty Crooked Smile," the final cut on the disc and a powerfully simplistic approach that doesn't rely on the big guitar riffs that pervade the opening track. To listen to the beginning of this disc, and to delve right into the blazing guitar wash of "Alternate," it's difficult to imagine the progression that leads to the final cut. In his accompanying press kit, Mark Doyon says "We don't set out to define what we're doing... What we're doing tends to define us." And that statement just about sums up the experience that accompanies listening to Murder Your Darlings. The last great mainstream release that best exemplifies this method of development of style and sound is Wilco's Summerteeth, a great record because of its natural progression toward a fully evolved body of work. When it's done, you know it. But halfway through, there's something nagging you and something egging you on to listen to how it's going to end. And that's the mark of a great narrative album. It's not about telling a story within the span of a three-minute song, but allowing the energy to redirect itself and carry you on a musical journey that even the band can't predict. The Wampeters have completed their journey in fine form. They have a distinct voice -- vocally and musically -- and they don't force any type of disparity here. They allow themselves to muse over the possibilities of "fate and fulfillment" and flesh it out in the form of a well-crafted record.

--Heidi Drockelman, Indie-Music.com, January 2000

***

As song titles like "Lee Jackson Hwy" suggest, Wampeters hail from Northern Virginia. In a blindfold test, though, such Wampeters tunes as "Hurry Up and Crumble" might well pass for Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. The trio's new Murder Your Darlings is loungey folk-rock that sounds both more '80s and more British than the band's 1997 debut.

Last time around, singer Mark Doyon spat out rhymes like yet another new Dylan, but this album's songs are smoother, cooler and more considered. "You're just a little bit full of yourself," a woman tells the narrator in "Pretty Crooked Smile," the album's wordiest, most awkward song, and that may be true. The other nine tunes, however, are seldom overbearing. Indeed, such mid-tempo rockers as "Anytime" and "I Am Thinking of My Darling" are so well-crafted that Doyon and his cohorts have reason to be a little bit full of themselves.

--Mark Jenkins, The Washington Post

*****

Check out Mark Doyon's current project, Arms of Kismet, at armsofkismet.com.

Average Customer Review: