And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Worlds Apart

Some of you are asking yourselves “Didn’t David already write a review for this album in his best of 2005 list?” while others are wondering “Does David really think I waste my time reading his reviews?”. If you were thinking the first question, the answer is yes, I did write about it. I also said I had only heard the album one time, and I didn’t own it yet. Now I own it, and it deserves a better review than the one it received on the list.

…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead creates a sort of rock opera feel to their newest release, the progressive “Worlds Apart”, by adding horns, strings, and pianos. Its inspirational feel differs from the unmatchable heights of “Source Tags and Codes”, yet as the band evolves it is hard not to evolve with it. Although the ending is rather weak, Worlds Apart more than makes up for it with the combo punch that songs “World Apart”, “Summer of ‘91”, “The Rest Will Follow”, and “Caterwaul” delivers. Those 4 songs alone make this album worth the $15. The first half of this album is driven by the grand opener “Ode to Isis”, a min long song that sounds like it should be sequenced to the beginning of an epic war battle during a Ridley Scott movie. There are only a few parts of this album that bear a resemblance to the Sonic Youth sound of their older material, yet “Worlds Apart” is a monstrous album. All told, this is nowhere near the masterwork that “Source Tags & Codes” is, but then again that is one astronomic album to be compared to. I think Trail of Dead has done a fantastic job creating a different sound instead of making new songs with the same sound. Actually, either way probably would’ve worked for me. However, the path they did choose to go just shows these guys are to be taken seriously as musicians and song writers.

If you were wondering the second question, then I suggest finding someone else who is going to tell you the truth about new music in a language you can understand as oppose to those spelling bee champion wizards they have at Rolling Stone that use the music review section as a chance to display their unrivaled intelligence by using words like floccinaucinihilipilification and cool.