The challenge is trying to label this album as it is so many things at once. Dog Problems is a delightful pastiche of sounds and colors that evoke Queen, Joe Jackson, The Beatles, Tahiti 80, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, even a touch of Black Twig Pickers, and waves of Power Pop crunch. Listening is like having a crate of some of the best vinyl dumped on your head, it pulls from every direction but manages to weave together a series of songs that reflect a knack for tight compositions and even tighter playing.
The album opens quietly but quickly slips into “I’m Actual”, a breezy orchestral pop number replete with string flourishes and a swollen brass section where Nate Ruess slyly implores that “We take the next hour and talk about me”; fleshing out the track a lazy accordion riff playing off a clarinet lick that never fails to make me think of the The Quadratics. The track is a good example of the band’s compositional prowess as it is a dense arrangement that features shifting dynamics and voicings every couple of bars creating great swells of sound that roll and crash around the lead vocals.
“Time Bomb” is by far the most dynamic track on the album and my personal favorite. Opening with a blast of Freddie Mercury it soars into a sing-a-long (or shout-a-long, whichever works best for you) chorus that instantly has me acting a complete fool drawn in by the wiggling piano line and foot stomping hand clapping rhythm section. Many of the songs here do just that being driven by The Format’s blend of Chamber Pop and Power Pop with equal doses of tongue-in-cheek winks to the past–look for one to Counting Crows 1993 Mr. Jones, one of my least favorite songs ever but damn funny in this context. When they dip into more Pop territory such as “Oceans” or the anthemic ending to “If Work Permits” the band proves that they can strip things back and just layout hooks thus proving that the Atlantic is incredibly shortsighted.
Dog Problems is a captivating album and one that is easily vying for the top of my Best of 2006 list. You can listen to two tracks off the album over at MySpace or grab “Compromise” at their website. Whatever you do, sit up and take notice as this album shouldn’t be missed. You can snag it over at eMusic.
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When popular mainstream artists such as Bruce, Dixie Chicks, Neil Young or even Charlie Daniels and Toby Keith bring political matters to the stage or God-forbid into their music, it usually creates an uproar amongst their fans. For some strange reason naysayers think that a musical artist’s political opinions should be separate from their art. Regardless, controversy is most likely created because it is unexpected by these artists who for the most part stray away from political material. Michael Franti is no stranger to letting his fans know his opinions, he has been creating music with an underlying political agenda since his first band the Beatnigs in late eighties then in the early nineties with The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. The roots of protest music can be traced back to blues and folk music from the thirties through the seventies, then punk and reggae from seventies forward. With a sound that some classify as hip-hop, Michael Franti manages to incorporate all of these said genres into his sound.
Back in early May of this year I went to my local Salvation Army to drop off a bunch of stuff that was cluttering my basement and garage. This particular Sals’ is not one of those “great find” thrift stores; I rarely find anything even remotely cool there. They have piles of old pre-recorded video tapes, hundreds of vinyl records that nobody wants and tons of Harlequin romance novels. This day I stumbled across a stack of what looked like brand new CDs. A $1.99 isn’t always cheap when the music isn’t good, so I always try to take my time to review them. Most of things I discovered had 2005 dates on them but an album by Carey Ott called Lucid Dream stood out. It was only five months into the year and there was a 2006 release sitting in a dirty CD bin. Recognizing Dualtone Records, the label it was on, the album looked somewhat promising so I bought that along with three other potential good finds.