Either these four young guys from Deerfield, Illinois have got
\nelephant balls, or they just don’t know any better. P.S. I’m pretty
\nsure they know better.<\/p>\n
There have been hundreds and hundreds of bands over the past 35
\nyears that have listened to, learned from, looked up to and\/or
\nlonged to be more like the Beatles. They were, after all, the
\nsingle most influential group in the history of rock and roll, and
\nthe originators of\/inspirations for any number of musical trends
\nand genres that followed in their wake, from power-pop to
\npsychedelia.<\/p>\n
But.<\/p>\n
The Redwalls do not “sound like” or “pay homage to” or any other
\nhalf-assed phrase one might use to try to relate their style to the
\nBeatles. They freaking
\nchannel<\/i> them like a million-megawatt radio\/time machine.
\nThis album could be titled
\nRevolver II (The Next Generation)<\/i>, and no one would
\nblink.<\/p>\n
The British invasion wall-of-guitars, the playful three-part
\nharmonies, the knowing nods to r&b rhythms, the occasional
\nheadlong dive into soulful blues-shouter vocals\u2026 even the
\ndetours into throbbing psychedelic pop, horns-and-strings accents
\nand earnest political statements. It’s all here, executed with a
\ncasual brilliance that boggles the mind, because not only are these
\nfour lads from the suburban Midwest, they’re barely out of high
\nschool. Brothers Logan Baren (vocals & guitar) and Justin Baren
\n(bass & vocals) are 22 and 19, respectively; best pal Andrew
\nLanger (guitar & vocals) is 20; and new guy Ben Greeno (drums)
\nis 21. (And they say you can’t get a musical education in America
\ntoday!)<\/p>\n
My favorite moments on this disc go by like a blur every time I
\nlisten to it. But here are just a few: the instantly memorable
\nchoruses of “Thank You” and “Building A Bridge”; the ebullient
\ndare-you-not-to-dance drive of “Love Her” and “It’s Alright”; the
\ndead-on acoustic protest song vibe of “Glory Of War”; and the truly
\nglorious, wailing “Twist And Shout” vocals deployed by Baren on the
\nblazing-fun closer “Rock And Roll.”<\/p>\n
The first time through you’re dazzled by the audacity of the
\nsound — the repeated Lennonisms in Baren’s vocals, the
\nnote-perfect retro arrangements, the giddy rock numbers seasoned
\nwith Hammond organ and orchestral flourishes. Then on subsequent
\nspins you start listening to the songs themselves and find out
\nthese guys really know what they’re doing. They aren’t imitators.
\nThey are a band that has adopted the Beatles’ sonic template whole,
\nand applied their own considerable writing talents to the task of
\nmaking new music within it.<\/p>\n
Nowhere is this clearer than on the one song where I really did
\nget the chills the first time I heard it. “Front Page” opens with
\nprocessed vocals that sound like Lennon speaking from beyond the
\ngrave, whereupon Baren moves steadily through a somber lyric (“As
\nthey talk about \/ Sixteen kids gone in a schoolyard \/ The papers
\nread \/ She shakes her head”) that sounds eerily like “A Day In The
\nLife 2005.” For that reason, part of me wanted to hate it, but I
\ncouldn’t — it’s too good.<\/p>\n
As a general rule, I want artists to show me something fresh and
\nnew. Tribute bands just make me sad that the real thing isn’t still
\naround. And that ‘s the crux of the musical dilemma posed by
\nDe Nova<\/i> — is this album original? Not in the sense of
\ncreating something the likes of which has never been seen or heard
\nbefore. But it certainly is original in the sense of accomplishing
\nsomething I’m not sure I’ve ever seen done this well before —
\ntaking a familiar and famous sound and breathing fresh new life and
\nvibrancy into it. They won this jaded critic over to the point
\nwhere all I have left to say is: Meet The Redwalls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":27109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7180],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-38446","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-redwalls","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38446"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}