...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead

Trail of Dead have a lot of hype to live down, from their incendiary live performances to the fact that they are one of the few, if not the only, "rocking" indie rock band on the landscape in 2006; the Austin kids are left holding the torch for a lot of people's expectations. With So Divided, they show they are not afraid of the challenge, admirably taking on Guided By Voices, wriggling around like the Birthday Party and keeping things as heavy as they are accessible throughout. Good stuff, especially the trio of songs that opens the album.

On their very good first two major-label albums, these Texans were ear-splitting
avant-rockers and then loud, epic-minded New Wavers, respectively. Now comes So
Divided, which offers quieter indie patter and dark power pop with big dollops of art and
atmosphere. It's all over the place, but it packs enough sweet noise manipulation and
actual songwriting to get over: The poppy "Eight Day Hell" sounds like the New P... More >