Langhorne Slim & the War Eagles
(Kemado)Langhorne Slim’s 2005 debut, When the Sun’s Gone Down, was raucous and charming, an off-kilter indie folk introduction whose appeal lay in the Pennsylvanian’s nasal croon unleashed in stomping anthems and fatalistic love letters. The LP worked primarily because of its lo-fi sound, curbing Slim’s urge for sweeping, unbridled eccentricity without suppressing it. His debut on Kemado, however, suffers from the benefit of more expansive production and instrumentation that deflate rather than bolster his style. The horns on “Rebel Side of Heaven” are distractingly gratuitous, while the easy lilt of “Sometimes” slides into an awkward warp of distortion and “She’s Gone” rolls from tin-pan percussion into straight Southern rock swagger. Slim’s energy and sincerity still retain their forces though, especially on the garage pulse of “The Honeymoon”; the yelping, tumbling flow of “Tipping Point”; and slower ballads like “Colette” and “Worries.” For Slim, less is more. (11:45am, Dell stage.)
This article appears in September 26 • 2008.
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