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You Can’t Take It With You, But Would You Want To?

As Tall As Lions fail to roar.

As Tall As Lions

You Can't Take It With You

Released on Aug 18, 2009

Slickly produced and full of big ideas that don’t necessarily fit together, the third LP from Long Island’s As Tall As Lions shoots for the ambitious and instead comes off like an industry showcase for “All the Latest in Songwriting and Hot Rock Production Flourishes.” Most of the songs feel calculated to appear original and spontaneous, rather than actually being so. On a better record, an eclectic range of ideas can enrich and enhance without taking the listener out of the experience. Here, the band seems to be working from a checklist of sorts: I hear a tape loop and think, “oh, time for another tape loop.” “Ah, some Spanish Guitar? Yep, there it is.” Measured additions can be good. On You Can’t Take It With You, much of the adornment feels false. That there aren’t many good songs underneath all of the window dressing is no small part of the problem. 

On paper, all of the elements of You Can’t Take It With You could make a great record. A boxy kick drum and handclaps on “Circles” start the record interestingly enough. Add a machine-gun snare, the aforementioned guitarra, and by the time the vocal comes in the song (and indeed, what the album holds in store for us) seems to have a lot of promise. As on previous records, Jeff Buckley is an obvious touchstone. Excellent. However, melodic patterns cribbed straight from a slighty more well-known band of Buckley disciples, yes, Coldplay, start showing up soon after, and one feels the first twinges of skepticism over just what As Tall As Lions has set out to accomplish. If the opening track begins to establish the record as unsure of itself, “Sixes and Sevens” hammers the point home. Cue the eclectic – another interesting Latin guitar opens the song, but then the band schizophrenically shuffles between the recent indie trend of “big” choral vocal lines (see Arcade Fire, The) and the canned wails of radio-emo. Mmhmm. 

Before the previous sentence turns you away completely, know that there are parts of the album to like. As Tall As Lions are seasoned and talented recording artists, and in the moments the band hits its mark the results are very rewarding. The title track, for example, is a revelation after the sour aftertaste of the first couple of songs. A vaguely Eastern melodic intro, more tape loops, and an almost Timbaland-ish R&B beat threaten to steer the album once again into gimmicky waters, but for once it all fits and the quality of the song makes its accompaniment augment rather than distract. Vocalist Dan Nigro sings a tasteful lead, and an out-of-nowhere multi-layered neo-soul vocal hook feels like a more interesting Maroon 5 (and I mean that in the best possible way). Add a very pretty outro, and I’m tempted to give the record a positive review on the strength of this song alone.  

The band delivers another highlight with the 8 minute-long movement-based “Duermete.” Washes of trombone, trumpet, and dreamlike reverb set the tone, and as Nigro’s vocal wavers in the upper registers alongside a slow-burning guitar and “Big-Rock” piano hits, you wonder if these guys have a truly brilliant record in there somewhere. The song is unabashedly emotional without the whiny caterwauling of earlier tracks like “Sixes,” and contains several songs-in-themselves segments that unlike most of the album balance a lot of interesting things without feeling thrown together or tacked on. 

Unfortunately, the album peaks with the epic “Duermete,” and the band moves back into more familiar, grating territory. Most of the good will earned by the record’s high points is jolted away in the opening moments of the abrasive late-period U2  knockoff “In Case of Rapture.” By the time the album winds down with the aptly-titled snoozefest “Sleepyhead” – and yes, in case you were wondering, they added a harpist – one is left with the infinitely frustrating task of sorting out the good and the bad. Making a proper assessment of You Can’t Take It With You is a daunting task. The completely incongruous quality gap between the record’s highlights and its many misfires made me want to listen to the whole thing over and over again, as I was sure I was missing something in the large majority of the album that I didn’t like. Sadly, I don’t think I was. 

Late in the sequence of the album, during “Is This Tomorrow?” Nigro asks, “Are there any songs worth singing?” Answer: yes. This band is capable of great things. The lyric continues, though, and implores us not to worry.  As Tall As Lions can just “leave it for another day.” Why not now?

Posted by Miguel Harvey on Sep 29, 2009 @ 6:00 am

as tall as lions, review, triple crown records, long island, jeff buckley, coldplay, dan nigro, maroon 5, u2