The Buddyrevelles - Don’t Quit
The Good Seven Year Itch
It’s ironic the more time a band spends working on a follow-up album, the more pressure manufactures for them to deliver something laudable. By working harder, they’ve made the target that much inflexible to reach. It’s like crafting an ice sculpture in the tropics I suppose: the more you sculpt, the more the sculpture melts and distorts; the less time you shape, the worse it looks. Eventually, its akin to a studio tweaked effort that is a puddle reflecting more of its distorted maker than his vision.
Such was arguably the air with the Buddyrevelles and their new album, Don’t Quit, which is seven years coming. The long-distance follow-up to 2000’s American Matador, the appropriately titled Don’t Quit represents shy-a-decade of an obsessive quest for perfection. Every moment of these ten tracks feel meticulously placed, and the arrangement effectively promotes the range of diversity this threesome boasts. The Buddyrevelles vary from alternative rock, indie-pop, to simply pop, and even touch lightly on post-rock and its red headed post-punk stepchild. Yet while attaining this miscellany of genres, the Buddyreveless manage to keep it all together. At its helm is the consistency of Aaron Grant’s vocals and guitar labor. In fact, the whole album pivots on Grant’s startlingly voice. The strong moments — whether within the climactic harmonies and melodies of ‘The Best is Ready to Begin’ or the frustrated lyrics of ‘The Way of Enchanted Falls’ — nor the feeble moments — like the cliché instrumentals of ‘Verrill Luck’ or cheesy song-writing of ‘Stuffed with Proverbs’ — could endure without Grant’s boyish voice. He pulls off lines like “Last night was enough to make me believe / I’m making believe” making one wish the guitars would hush for a moment in ‘Aggravated Robbery’ (which actually happens in ‘Greatest Romantic’ but sounds awful).
It would be easy to lump the Buddyrevelles in with indie-pop acts like the New Pornographers or a more mature Voxtrot, but their impressive diversity and Grant’s unique voice demands that Don’t Quit stand apart from its peers. This is a 7 year ordeal mastered, a perfect ice sculpture on the beach - albeit safe in warm waters and unobtrusive waves.
Michael Schmitt
