...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
IX (Superball)
Reviewed by Abby Johnston, Fri., Nov. 21, 2014
...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
IX (Superball)For 20 years, ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead has barreled head first into each of its musical immersions. Over the course of nine albums, the Austin quartet has ratcheted punk, baroque pop, and prog, often all at once. Now, after years of album-length genre-bending, the band's settled on a thundering happy medium with IX. If there's a thread connecting TOD's discography, it's cinematic ambition, a musical grandeur grounding both the post-punk of 2002's Source Tags & Codes and the lush art pop of 2005's Worlds Apart, career milestones the pair. IX evolves that tradition, though it surfaces through different channels. The apocalyptic insistence of opener "The Doomsday Book" punches out carnal familiarity in its drum-led push, Conrad Keely's voice floating just above the obtuse crash of instruments. Sometimes the movie soundscapes are more subtle, like the pair of string-driven instrumental interludes ("How to Avoid Huge Ships," "Like Summer Tempests Came His Tears"). In fact, the best points of IX come from the marriage of these two sonic hallmarks. "Bus Lines" rolls loosely through its guitar work, allowing the nuances of the song to emerge from behind it, while closer "Sound of the Silk" leads us through a kaleidoscope of tribal drums, spoken word, and noir pop. It's a final reminder that Trail of Dead has a lot of big ideas and more on the way.
