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Review Summary: La Dispute: More cohesive, more infectious. As with most sophomore successors, you can't discuss Wildlife outside of the context of its predecessor, Somewhere At the Bottom of the River. The album was an inherent contradiction, sprawling epics with grandiose structure applied to such personal and private connotations as a significant other. In this way, Wildlife is an inversion, the band working as a meshed, somewhat minimalistic collective whilst dedicating to themselves to external issues. There is no emotionally wrought twelve minute closer to be “The Last, Lost Continent's” equivalent, and maybe that's just fine.
In this vein, Dreyer has become more of a story teller than an agonized youth, whilst losing none of his individual flair for passion and melodrama. The change is divisive, can the retold anecdote of a stranger be as personally affecting to the listener as the singer's unfaithful spouse? One need look no further than the pinnacle that is “King Park” to belie these fears, a relentless, ever building cacophony, instrument and vocal perfectly intertwined in the telling of a tragic tale:
“If you could see up close,
how could you ever forget,
how senseless death,
how precious life,
I want to be there when the bullet hit.”
Dreyer remains consistently inconsistent, and the tracks laid entirely on his shoulders reflect this i.e. the “A Departure” “A Poem” series, which smack of over indulgence, teetering the verge of the aimless pretentious that they've been so accused of, but the risk more often rewards the listener than it does punish. When he nails it, he really nails it. “A Broken Jar” perfectly encapsulates this, standing out as a clear, personal plea, a solitary acoustic guitar building to a tainted crescendo of self consternation and internal struggle:
“Building uncertain towards a curtain call that no-one wants to happen,
That no-one's going to clap for at all, but that still has to be.”
Instrumentally, the band works together as a tight knit, connected unit. The guitarist takes no flamboyant liberties such as the riffage in “Bury Your Flame”, instead he's happy to supplement the underlying groove, producing some of the most incredibly listenable music of the year i.e. “St. Paul Missionary”. La Dispute no longer require technical showmanship to make you feel, satisfied to hit you as a collective force, and making it work through their trademark, ever present emotion for their own craft, whilst retaining a newfound experience and maturity. The result is a product that is distinctly La Dispute, but a less frantic, more composed one. This is what sequels so frequently aspire to be, retaining the identity that made them so endearing to their pre-existing audience, whilst progressing stylistically to newer, different and more promising heights.
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Album Rating: 4.0
Great review, if a little short. I love this album, pos'd
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Thanks buddy, appreciated.
Critique is, as always, welcome.
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Band is average as all fucking hell but the review is good.
If I were to critic I would say you don't have a lot of content, I feel you didn't detail the
instrumentation enough other than it's tight, and you didn't give much examples as to why other than
one song.
I think maybe you put too much focus on Dreyer, though from what I've heard he's basically the band(so
to speak), so maybe that's not a bad thing.
Other than that pretty good, pos'd.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
WOW A 5
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Thanks, gwyn.
Would love to hear rationale for the ghost neg, whomever you are. Ain't even mad, just curious.
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Decent review, pos.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Just like every Wave band with the exception of Pianos, this sophomore effort is far weaker than their debut.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
The final paragraph needs tidying up a bit, some of the sentences don't really make sense. I also agree that it needs a bit more content overall, but other than that its a good review.
I think this is a lot better than their debut, but I only really feel that once I get to the closing two tracks which pull it all together as a cohesive whole.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off
very, very good review. the negs you got were undoubtedly La Dispute haters (I can't believe I just used that terminology) who looked at the rating and clicked "no."
I definitely agree with a lot of what you said, but at the end of the day, I still prefer Somewhere. That album is mah shittttttt.
Actual Album Rating: 4.5
| | | Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off
When given the option of clicking two links under your review, one saying "Yes" and the other saying "No," I decided that, indeed, the review WAS well-written, and therefore, I moved my cursor over to "Yes" link and applied some light pressure on my mouse with my index finger, at which point, I was directed to a page informing me that my vote had, indeed, been counted
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Great review and great album
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Fucking rules.
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Going to try and write another today, now I've shaken the rust off. Hopefully work on less convoluted sentence structure.
Thanks for the kind words, Aids (and Scream). Yeah, the ghost negs are probably a criticism of my rating rather than my writing, which is dumb as fuck but whatever, that's the internet.
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