Skeletons And The Kings Of All Cities - Lucas

  by Andrew Hare

published: 10 / 5 / 2007

---

Review

New York based Matt Mehlan and friends have crafted eccentric concept album that fuses drums not dead beats, jazzy guitar lines that ride out forever, and repetitive motifs that fall somewhere between the most experimental outpourings of Animal Collective, Tortoise, and The Sea and Cake. 'Lucas' is inspired by an imaginary Garden of Eden in a rural midwestern town in the United States, one of many the band lazily passed through during touring stints as Skeletons, and Skeletons and the Girl-Faced Boy. Their band name is certainly experimental, but I pleasantly surprised by the music’s organic temperament, acoustic reliance, and even the occasional catchy vocal melody. The album opens with the fantastic cut 'What They Said', with its rock steady big beat, loose constantly flowing guitar bits, handclaps, and the soon-to-be cliché campfire sing-a-long repetitive outro. The focus on electronics, something that defined the group’s previous release 'Git', takes a back seat on most of the album but shows up like in the form of swirling, glitchy leads 'Fake Tits'. The album’s centerpiece is the 11 minute long 'Don’t Worry' a song which shows off what makes this band such an eclectic reward. A delightful combination of meandering guitar motifs, jazzed up horns, and layered vocals make for the pop embodiment of sleepwalking. The songs on 'Lucas' become hazy dreamscapes, not unlike the left behind towns of rural America. And when the final track 'Push ‘Em Out' breaks into noise-filled hysterics, you realize the dream has actually become a nightmare that you just can’t wake up from. Much less turn down.

Track Listing:-

1 What They Said
2 Fake Tits
3 Hay W'Happns?
4 Don't Worry
5 The Shit From The Dogs
6 Like It Or Not
7 Let It Out
8 Sickness
9 Push 'Im Out