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- Record Label: Dead Oceans
- Release Date: Aug 3, 2010
- Summary: The Seattle indie rock quartet returns with its sophomore disc less than two years after debuting its self-titled album.
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- Record Label: Dead Oceans
- Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock, Indie Rock
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Score distribution:
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Positive: 8 out of 14
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Mixed: 5 out of 14
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Negative: 1 out of 14
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Alternative PressSeattle's Mt. St. Helen's Vietnam Band make a dramatic leap forward on this meditative follow-up to their eponymous 2009 debut. [Sep 2010, p.112]
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Dec 21, 2010Each time the album so overtly flips over, the same brief blushes of goosebumps, the same visceral highs, the same infectious, clapping percussion: I straight up have a crush on this album.
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With its sophomore album, Where The Messengers Meet, the group puts miles between itself and the self-titled debut it released only 18 months ago, and discovers unexpected edge in the process.
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Close-knit is fine, but on Messenger, the band has pulled themselves in too tight.
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Although still fans of start-stop measures and tempo changes, this time around songs are given some welcome room to breathe and the quartet focus on grand, pastoral soundscapes, which loosely recall the likes of Pink Floyd.
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Sad-eyed generalists with a knack for cinematic spookiness, they aspire to Wolf Parade's adventurousness, but often descend into lumbering, Interpol-style self-seriousness.
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Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band wasn't a good record, but its exuberance and overstuffed arrangements at least helped counter its derivativeness. But Messengers drips with resignation and defeat-- the record actually sounds depressed.