Continuing from last year’s plethora of post-masterpiece veteran releases, on January 25th, alt-rockers … And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead released Worlds Apart to a less than enthusiastic reception from critics.
Like any band trying to step out of the shadow of its masterpiece, the odds were stacked against this Texas trio. Trail of Dead’s 2002 release, Source Tags and Codes, was the perfect realization of the band’s sonic and attitudinal aesthetic. Taking a note from the guitar interplay of Sonic Youth and injecting the energy of Mission of Burma, Trail of Dead accomplished intricate guitar interplay with a fierce edge and an epic emotional resolve that surpassed all of its influences.
With this in mind, it’s no surprise that Worlds Apart was so highly anticipated and scrutinized upon its inception.
Essentially, Trail of Dead went a comparable route to Interpol by maintaining its surface aesthetic and instead reformatting the substance of the music and the how the songs relate to each other, giving the album a resounding pop orientation. To put it in layman’s terms, Trail of Dead made the transition from album rock to anthem rock.
Worlds Apart is a collection of songs that beg to be consumed by the popular media, aiming to prove that complexity and artistic bombast have a place within pop culture. This is enough to evoke sighs of disgust from any hipster critic, but it also makes sense considering the band has already solidified its godly status in the indie community.
The next logical step from there is to change (or mutilate) the face of popular rock-and-roll. Whether or not Trail of Dead can slip into the mainstream and shake things up will only be told with time, but the artistic and musical merits of Worlds Apart can be discussed regardless of its temporal significance in any music circle.
When it comes down to it, Worlds Apart is a very mixed bag and eludes both success and failure. At its best, the album is enjoyable and infectious. At its worst, the album is arrogant, derivative, and manipulative.
No song captures both these positive and negative qualities more than the potential single, “Worlds Apart,” a scorching if not exactly deep criticism of American culture and the music industry. Conrad Keely, the lead singer, is far from his element and overextends himself by trying to compensate for his relatively flat, nasal voice. Instead of using subtlety or insight to drive home his point, Keely sings, “Look at these cunts on MTV / With their cars, and cribs, and rings, and shit / Is that what being a celebrity means?” This is just the kind of emotional surface drive that could actually land Trail of Dead on MTV, especially considering that the song is short and sweet with a catchy, derivative melody and a “socially conscious,” anthem chorus.
But at the same time, it’s hard to hate “Worlds Apart” or, for that matter, any other song on the album. The entire disc showcases shimmering production, saturated guitars, thunderous timpani drums, off-kilter time signatures and glorious choirs. Trail of Dead hasn’t lost its technical swagger or propensity for grand gestures, making even the worst offerings on the album glorious failures.
Additionally, the album sports the band’s signature segues that smoothen the transitions from song to songs. These segues are successful this time around but not nearly as ambiguous or creepy as those on Source Tags and Codes.
Worlds Apart is an easy album to enjoy but a hard album to love, especially if you tend to sway toward elitism or have a general disdain for pop music. But hate it or love it, Worlds Apart was an unpredictable turn for Trail of Dead. It’s an album that draws familiarity from both the band’s previous work and the accessibility of popular rock-and-roll.
Oddly enough, Keely describes this endeavor perfectly with the chorus to the closing song, “The Lost City of Refuge,” when he sings in an airy voice: “Swept away / But we’re not lost.”
Grade: B / C
