Inflight At Night

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Dead Meadow - Old Growth

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Maybe it was the slimming of Dead Meadow’s line up from the quartet that recorded 2005’s Feathers to a trio for their fifth studio album, Old Growth, that can be attributed to the new album’s stripped down feel. With their underlying roots exposed, Dead Meadow’s core has been allowed to be presented more clearly, and some of their “dirty blues rock” has surfaced from under the shadows of the band’s earlier heavy sonic overtones, especially on the first half of the album. Now don’t get me wrong, Dead Meadow haven’t gone and traded in all the dreamy psych and environmental jams for a wooden stool and 12-bar blues, they’ve just allowed what has always been there to bubble up to the surface.

Jason Simon’s vocals are presented in a more natural state, imperfections and all, and it’s this along with less effects dripping guitar parts that might initially throw fans. But thrown not for long, as we been begin to appreciate the pacing of the new songs, hearing the absolutely still heavy as hell guitar/cymbal crash/bass combinations, and reveling in the acoustically lead offerings like “Down Here”, “Seven Seers”, and “Either Way”.

Kicking things off is “Ain’t Got Nothing (To Go Wrong)”, a seven minute jam that’s got a killer wah-wah guitar solo that without it would leave the song feeling a little bit blah. It’s the next two tracks, “Between Me And The Ground” and “What Needs Must Be” that Dead Meadow throw down a little of that aforementioned dirty blues rock, there’s even a little bit of boogie to it; you can almost hear a Mississippi blues band taking these songs and really giving them the delta treatment.

My two favorite tracks actually come near the end of the album, “Keep On Walking” and “Hard People/Hard Times”, both are Dead Meadow songs in the more traditional sense, that is they rock like my favorite tracks from Feathers. And I hate to evaluate Old Growth based upon a prior release, it’s just that many people are going to do it and I hope that after people get over the slight adjustment in sound they begin to appreciate Old Growth on it’s own. Air it out, let it breathe, it takes a couple spins around the block, but it’s all there.

Download “I’m Gone” (mp3) from Dead Meadow’s new album, Old Growth, out now on Matador Records.

Dead Meadow play The Echo (1822 W Sunset Blvd) tonight with Great Northern and Midnight Movies to celebrate the release of Old Growth as well as kicking off the start of a 4 month tour that will take the band around the US, Canada, and Europe.

Old Growth is out now, get it from: Insound | Amazon | iTunes | Amazon MP3 | eMusic


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