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The New Year also stands as an equal to the brothers' best work and that makes it absolutely essential to any card-carrying indie rock devotee.
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FilterThe band puls science closer to post-rock with songs like fractals, repeating notes until you don't think you can bear their recurrance, then spangling out into gorgeous odes to the passage of time and the beauty of the loss therein. [Fall 2008, p.102]
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This is exquisitely made, moodily complicated stuff, and if it doesn’t fit into the current landscape, that’s more our problem than theirs.
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The New Year is a workman-like group, and this is yet another solid album from them.
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This subtle, delightful and lovingly crafted album will doubtlessly be revered by those lucky few who have been following the Kadane brothers throughout their quiet but increasingly remarkable musical careers.
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The unrushed songs are equally appealing, gussied up with elegant guitar and piano accents and spiked with disarming lines.
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The gradual and hesitant payoffs of these songs give the feeling of standing on a precipice, while their brief but gorgeous outros are like looking out on a limitless horizon. The latter half of the record could have used more of these moments.
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Fortunately, no surprises are really needed, as the New Year's technique, while somewhat dated and profoundly unadventurous, still holds solid in all its sleepwalking, ponderous glory.
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The Kadanes have released their third full-length, a self-titled release best appreciated as the culmination of the Kadane’s experience of playing together since children in Wichita Falls, TX.
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It goes without saying that The New Year is an album that will draw comparisons to the Kidane brothers' previous group. The good news is that in the face of such unavoidable observations, the album easily stands up on its own.
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Under The RadarIt's worth a purchase for the slow-building 'Folios' alone. [Fall 2008, p.87]
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Not only does it stand as a summation of their greatest (previous) strengths, its rhythmic and propulsive sway points to a new, more fervently alive direction for the group, making both the band and album’s name all the more appropriate.
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For just under two decades, brothers Bubba and Matt Kadane have spent the majority of their time together crafting as near perfect slices of sonic Americana as they could.
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Once again Steve Albini-produced, their third effort doesn’t stray wildly from Matt’s laid-back vocals and the intertwining melodic guitar parts they’re now known for, but there is at least one effort to evolve.
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This is the New Year. And there’s plenty of Bedhead in the New Year. Just not enough, unfortunately, in The New Year.
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One thing this record definitely lacks is variety. With a work claiming to hold "the band's most varied songs" it's disappointing and surprising to hear so little diversity.
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Key elements--shy vocals, shimmery guitar--remain from the Kadanes' previous band, slow-core pioneers Bedhead, though Matt now actually enunciates the band's diary entries.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 5 out of 6
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Mixed: 0 out of 6
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Negative: 1 out of 6
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JuneH.Sep 28, 2008Incredible album for its precision, concision, and overall incredible craftsmanship...absolutely worth the 4-year wait since the last album.