Categories : Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 4 / 5 Reviewer: Andrew Mitchell |
When Alan Spearhawk launched Retribution Gospel Choir in 2007, it felt like a rebellious, experimental diversion to the slowcore indie rock he’d perfected over 15 years with his band, Low. But with the release of a second album, appropriately entitled 2, the three-man band, led by vocalist/composer/guitarist Spearhawk, have laid claim to a frenzied form of alternative rock that is equally bent on provoking religious fervor through its impassioned themes as it is through its highly dissonant instrumentation.
Anyone who’s attended a live show knows that a RGC staple is a slow building manic jam of sweat inducing intensity, that once reaching fanatical levels, succumbs to a slow, sacred ebb. ‘Poor Man’s Daughter’ most aptly demonstrates this form as it segues from mournful pleas to a cacophony of instruments and an eventual healing, choral closing. Even more eccentrically, ‘Something’s Going To Break’ takes muffled vocals, a fire-crackling sound effect and angry instrumentation to the point of maximum dissonance before unwinding into a chorus of soaring melody in its final refrain. But just as the guys dig heavily in experimentation, they balance it off with some more approachable fare. ‘Your Bird’ and ‘Hide It Away’ evoke the stoner feel of ’60s psychedelia; ‘Workin’ Hard’ is an exercise in classic bar rock with its heavy, catchy riffs, and ‘White Wolf’ is solid power rock at its purest.
Clearly Spearhawk is feeling the need to dabble outside the constraints placed on him with Low. On 2, his love for electric guitar is front and centre. And if the musical interlude ’68 Comeback’ is a veiled reference to Elvis’ famous reclamation of artistic significance as a guitar man, Spearhawk may be trying to claim the same for himself.
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