Lost somewhere between the painstakingly crafted power chords of \u201cClosing Time\u201d and the supple keyboard melodies of \u201cSinging In My Sleep\u201d is the fact that, prior to its two biggest singles and the 1998 album they came from (Feeling Strangely Fine<\/i>), Semisonic had begun life as a playful alt-rock band dominated by crunchy riffs, deep grooves, and abundant energy. <\/p>\n
You could argue that Feeling Strangely Fine<\/i> located the group\u2019s optimum balance point between fire and craft\u2014certainly the mellower All About Chemistry<\/i> that followed it in 2001 does little to argue otherwise\u2014but there\u2019s plenty to enjoy on the earlier, scratchier, looser manifestation of the group captured on their debut LP Great Divide<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The Minneapolis trio\u2014Dan Wilson (lead vocals, guitars, keys), John Munson (bass, backing vocals, keys) and Jacob Slichter (drums, backing vocals, keys)\u2014attacks the songs found here with tremendous gusto. Leadoff cut \u201cF.N.T.\u201d wastes no time delivering a bruising hook that sits in immediate contrast to its lyric, as Wilson decorates this boisterous, juking tune with words like \u201cfascinating\u201d and \u201clovely\u201d and \u201cprecious.\u201d \u201cIf I Run\u201d pulls off a similar contrast, a song about battling anxiety and thoughts of mortality that\u2019s set to a crashing, playful power-trio jam. <\/p>\n
Lowest-common-denominator pop, this isn\u2019t, which was both blessing and curse in Semisonic\u2019s \u201990s heyday. How dare they make intelligent, insightful songs with giddy-fun technicolor guitar hooks?<\/p>\n
The run continues with \u201cDelicious,\u201d a rambunctious come-on that rides Slichter\u2019s stuttering-yet-galloping drums, and the album\u2019s too-aptly named first single \u201cDown In Flames,\u201d featuring more heavy riffage, big drums, and a feedback-laden crash-burn-and-fadeout finish. Fittingly, title track \u201cAcross The Great Divide\u201d is the song that offers the strongest hints as to the band\u2019s next sonic evolution, an airy mid-tempo rocker that leans more on melody than heaviness, and employs Wilson\u2019s terrific falsetto to accentuate certain lines.<\/p>\n
Both energy and quality wane a bit after those first five very strong tunes. High points from there include the sweet soul groove of the otherwise rather nondescript \u201cTemptation,\u201d the complex vocal arrangement on \u201cFalling,\u201d and a pair of tracks held over from their previous Pleasure<\/i> EP. \u201cThe Prize\u201d feels bigger and bolder here, while \u201cBrand New Baby\u201d feels toned down, with less thrash and more melody, less anger and more indifference than on its Pleasure<\/i> iteration.<\/p>\n
Munson takes a lead vocal turn on \u201cIn Another Life,\u201d a slumbery tune with a nice retro stacked harmony arrangement, before they close out with \u201cI\u2019ll Feel For You,\u201d a dreamy, glitchy ballad featuring still more Beach Boys-influenced harmonies.<\/p>\n
Great Divide<\/i> showcases a band still finding its sound, bouncing between the heavy riff-rock featured on the front end and the dreamier fare that increasingly dominates the second half. What\u2019s apparent throughout is that Semisonic is almost constitutionally incapable of making boring music. Even when things don\u2019t quite work, in their hands the songs emerge as interesting examples of craft. Great Divide<\/i> is a flawed yet exuberant burst of creation from a band that was already very good, and still getting better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5970],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-46106","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-semisonic","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46106","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=46106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46106"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46106"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}