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Nothing new on pleasant debut

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Also by Jimmy Stull:

Indie group's stage performance thrills (March 19, 2007)
Shins rock the night away at Rave concert (February 12, 2007)
Nothing new on pleasant debut (February 16, 2007)
Forgotten Fab Four: Best of Beatles' overlooked solo albums (November 7, 2006)
Caution: Harvey dangerous (September 29, 2006)

by Jimmy Stull

Friday, February 16, 2007

Gold Dust Trail is the debut EP from the Atlanta-based, four-piece Warm in the Wake (it took me several glances at the press release to figure out which was the band name and which was the EP title).

These guys are the quintessential fresh, unknown new talent that indie rock connoisseurs pride themselves on discovering. I've yet to catch a video of theirs on MTV2 and they don't have a song on the upcoming O.C. soundtrack as far as I know. They're that rookie band you listen to so when they blow up you can say, "Dude, I was into these guys from their first EP — way before they sold out and played the VMAs!"

So what do these hidden indie stars-to-be sound like? You guessed it: Wilco meets Beulah meets The New Pornographers meets … need I say more? Which is not necessarily a bad thing. All of these bands have amassed a lot of indie cred over the years, so it won't be hard for connoisseurs to start listening in preparation for the day Warm in the Wake hit the big time (by indie-rock terms, at least).

The EP plays like a primer on the best indie music of the decade. Throughout the disc, lead singer Chris Rowell's high-register vocals sound like a slightly more conservative Jim James of My Morning Jacket. The chorus to "Golden Inhibition Destroyer" has virtually the same climbing synth line as the Shins' "Mine's Not a High Horse." "Good King" pans out in a cryptic repeating line over blossoming musical chaos, just like half the songs on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. "What You Seek" feels so much like Guster's "Long Way Down" I can only hope Rowell has never heard the song. Finally, "Ironworkers" stands out as a testament to the Georgians' southern-rock background with a Thrills-y country pop ballad. All these artists are critically acclaimed, but does that really make it worthwhile to revisit their best moments on another band's release?

Warm in the Wake's website seems designed to outsmart critics with these exact complaints. The "history" segment reads, "Warm in The Wake describe their music as simple American songs that have been gently thrown into the space rock realm." Apparently delving into the timeless, subterranean abyss of what is generally considered the "space-rock realm" only requires a tremolo pedal and a couple airy synth layers.

But despite the borrowed ideas and indie-rock mimicry, Gold Dust Trail really does show some potential. The opener "Tame Thoughts" effortlessly achieves the kind of feel-good melancholy that songwriters spend their entire careers trying to capture. It's so instantly beautiful from the first time you play it, it can only get worse with each proceeding listen.

It wouldn't be right, however, to end this review without mentioning how much the closing track, "Skeleton Friends," sucks. It's so boring and bland that I actually look back on the rest of the CD poorly and have to replay "Tame Thoughts" to remind myself why I said anything good about them in the first place … and I'll be darned if that song doesn't give me goose bumps every time.

When I started this review I had no problem with WitW choosing the seven-song EP as a medium for a first release, or any release for that matter. However, several paragraphs/listens in, I'm beginning to revoke that stance. Especially when you're playing such standard, Tom Petty-esque pop rock; there's really no excuse for not coming up with a good 12 or 14 songs to make it worth the packaging. I'm not supposed to say this, but if I were you I'd just cough download cough, cough "Tame Thoughts" and wait for the actual album to come out.

Unless, of course, you want proof that you've been a devoted Wakes fan since day one.

Grade: 2.5 out of 5

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